Orbital debris poses a very real risk to satellites and orbital spacecraft, and optics debris detection is the most effective way to mitigate that risk. Here we’ll examine how optical tracking, laser ranging and other methods can be used to determine the precise orbit of space debris. But first, why is space debris a problem?
The low earth orbit was free of manmade objects until 1957, but since then, the number of small and large pieces of debris orbiting our planet has skyrocketed. Today, there are an estimated 40500 pieces of space debris larger than ten centimeters, and 130 million greater than 1 mm. Since these pieces of debris travel at speeds in the order of kilometers per second, collisions can be catastrophic. It has been estimated that a small coin traveling at 10/km/s can deliver the same impact as a small bus, traveling at 100 km/hr. Even small pieces of space debris, then, are too dangerous to be ignored.
