AAS 98-173

THE 1997.0 CNUCE ORBITAL DEBRIS REFERENCE MODEL

C. Pardini, L. Anselmo, A. Rossi - CNUCE/CNR, Italy; A. Cordelli - Consorzio Pisa Ricerche, Italy; P. Farinella - Universitai di Pisa, Italy

Abstract

Today earth mission planning and operations must deal with a problem mostly ignored just twenty years ago: non-catalogued space debris. In order to understand the origin and distribution of the artificial debris in the 0.1-10 cm size range, we carried out a massive effort to estimate the contribution of the historical events able to produce a large number of particles. The sources considered were 140 spacecraft and upper stages breakups and the liquid sodium-potassium coolant leaked from 16 Soviet radar ocean reconnaissance satellites. The resulting 1997.O CNUCE Orbital Debris Reference Model (CODRM-97) includes more than 52 millions of particles heavier than 1 mg.

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