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This paper discusses the processes which should be taken to establish debris indices that assess the orbital environmental impact of spacecraft or missions in orbit. The first process is establishing a methodology and criteria for evaluating an impact on the orbital environment. This study proposed an assessment method to evaluate the cumulative environmental changes during an evaluation period. It evaluated the impact of an uncontrolled LC mission abandoned in orbit. This study used Near-Earth Orbital Debris Environment Evolutionary Model (NEODEEM), an orbital environmental evolutionary model that Kyushu University and JAXA developed. The second process is the debris index formulation. This study considered four steps to establish the debris index. To reveal the establishing process of a debris index, this study used debris indexes as candidates which consider expected number of fragments generated from an object. The calculated debris index values were compared to the impact on the environment assessed by the evolutionary model to see if there was any correlation. Further, this study conducted numerical simulations of un-controlled large-constellation satellites abandoned in low earth orbit in different scenarios, and of active debris removals of large intact objects by NEODEEM. This paper discusses the applicability of proposed environmental assessment methods and the debris index. • Two processes to establish a debris index are proposed. • A methodology and criteria for evaluating environmental impacts is discussed. • Four steps to formulate a debris index is discussed. • Correlations between debris indexes and environmental impacts are compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laser ablation technology enables contactless debris removal, providing the advantages of safety and cost efficiency. To deorbit space debris using laser ablation, the attitude motion of the debris must be controlled in advance. Although a previous study derived an attitude control procedure, it empirically determines control gains and is easily affected by assumed preconditions. To solve this problem, this paper proposes an improved attitude control law using laser ablation. Previous methods use feedback control based on the angular velocity error and error quaternions to obtain a reference torque. By analogy with a magnetic attitude control law, this study designs a reference torque based on the angular momentum errors and presents theoretical condition for designing the control gains. Numerical examples using the proposed control law are conducted to control the target attitude from a random initial rotation of 1 rpm to an arbitrary attitude, which verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. Furthermore, the position, direction, and magnitude uncertainties of laser irradiation are introduced to numerically examine their effects on the control accuracy under environmental disturbances. • Conventional attitude control method by laser ablation is improved. • The effective control gains can be set theoretically by applying the concept of magnetic attitude controller. • The designed control gains depend on the rate of target rotation. • The method is effective under laser uncertainties and environmental disturbances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A formation keeping control law for deorbiting debris by a laser ablation is proposed. • The analytical solution of relative motion in powered flight is derived. • The control law is robust against the uncertainties of ablation thrust and orbital perturbation. This paper proposes the formation keeping control law for deorbiting debris by a laser ablation. Laser ablation is vital technology for contactless active debris removal, where a chaser satellite with a laser system irradiates laser pulses to a target object to generate the ablation force for deorbiting. The deorbiting force decelerates the target, and the chaser must maintain its relative position and continue irradiating. In other words, both the chaser and the target are supposed to be deorbited simultaneously, where both have accelerations. Although conventional formation flying missions assume that only a chaser maneuvers, the formation flying in this paper considers that both a chaser and a target have accelerations. Thus, this paper derives the relative equations of motion between the chaser and the target in powered flight and their analytical solution using relative orbital elements. A control law based on the analytical solution is proposed, which determines the timings and directions of the laser ablation and the electrical thrust so that the formation periodically returns to a desired formation. Numerical simulations first examine the control law in two cases with different maneuver timings. Then, a Monte Carlo simulation is performed to verify the effectiveness of the control law for a variety of desired formations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of the near-Earth debris population since the beginning of human space activities is now a fact commonly admitted by space agencies worldwide. Numerous entities have warned about the danger that debris may have over time. Presently mitigation methods such as imposing post-mission disposal time after launch will no longer be sufficient; remediation processes seem necessary to limit the increase. In particular, this phenomenon is attributed to the generation of fragments due to more and more on-orbit collisions. Therefore, investigations on indexes to select potential removal targets were recently conducted, considering solely objects implicated in a collision course. This study also looks at the multiple fragmentation factors, including time through the altitude at time of impact (due to the behaviour of debris re-entering with time). The focal point is here to compare different criteria to select removal targets that enable scenarios in best adequacy with the future in question (long term, mid term or short term). Aware of the uncertainty of evolutionary models, this study also incorporates the simulation method as an impactful factor and tries to overcome the potential randomness of the results. Therefore, this paper presents a way to establish a selection criterion the most adequate for the time period focused on. In order to solve this issue, a “double-check” method is proposed. First, an analytical evolutionary model simulates the environment over 100 years, through 100 Monte-Carlo runs. Then, among the initial population of year 2009, the objects supposed to be at the origin of the debris detected at a given time are tracked back in time into the simulations, using a collision-detecting program. The “given period” above mentioned for the presence of debris is based on a future as such that 2029 be considered a short-term scenario, 2059 a midterm scenario and 2109 a long-term scenario. This step produces three lists of targets for removal (one for each future), and simulations are run once again, through different scenarios involving the removal of particular listed targets in order to verify the appropriateness of the proposed scenarios. The analysis of the results is based both on the mean of the simulations and on the recurrence considering each run. Three studies were conducted one for each term, and a fourth one completed the work by establishing comparison between short, mid and long-term periods. As a result, three main criteria could be established: the altitude of the objects, the number of targets necessary to remove, and the phenomenon of chain collisions. According to the future that was investigated, the most adequate criterion appeared to be different, consisting in the number of objects in the long-term analysis or the ranking position at short term (linked to the close-time consideration). As a main conclusion and further perspectives, it should be more efficient to consider the collision-probability and mass product together with the time-depending generation of fragments. This would help increasing the precision in the prediction of collision impacts. Rather than pinpointing specified targets to be removed, the aim of this study is simply to understand the mechanisms at the origin of the population increase around the Earth. Also to demonstrate that a careful definition of selection criteria would enable to adopt a suitable removal process in the period of action or for the goal to be reached. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Identifying spacecraft breakup events is an essential issue for better understanding of the current orbital debris environment. This paper proposes an observation planning approach to identify an orbital anomaly, which appears as a significant discontinuity in archived orbital history, as a spacecraft breakup. The proposed approach is applicable to orbital anomalies in the geostationary region. The proposed approach selects a spacecraft that experienced an orbital anomaly, and then predicts trajectories of possible fragments of the spacecraft at an observation epoch. This paper theoretically demonstrates that observation planning for the possible fragments can be conducted. To do this, long-term behaviors of the possible fragments are evaluated. It is concluded that intersections of their trajectories will converge into several corresponding regions in the celestial sphere even if the breakup epoch is not specified and it has uncertainty of the order of several weeks. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

To predict the future orbital environments, it is necessary to know outcome of the satellite fragmentation. The NASA standard breakup model is designed to describe the outcome of typical satellite fragmentation. This model is an empirical model and the major data sources are the 1980s on-orbit satellite breakup events and the ground-based Satellite Orbit Debris Characterization Impact Test series conducted in early 1990s. The target cubic satellites ranged from 15 to 20 cm in size and about 1000 g in mass. Results from all seven impact tests carried out in 2008 are shown in this paper and compared with the NASA standard breakup model to demonstrate potential improvements of the model in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: By using electrodynamic drag to greatly increase the orbital decay rate, an electrodynamic space tether can remove spent or dysfunctional spacecraft from low Earth orbit (LEO) rapidly and safely. Moreover, the low mass requirements of such tether devices make them highly advantageous compared to conventional rocket-based de-orbit systems. However, a tether system is much more vulnerable to space debris impacts than a typical spacecraft and its design must be proved to be safe up to a certain confidence level before being adopted for potential applications. To assess space debris related concerns, in March 2001 a new task (Action Item 19.1) on the “Potential Benefits and Risks of Using Electrodynamic Tethers for End-of-life De-orbit of LEO Spacecraft” was defined by the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC). Two tests were proposed to compute the fatal impact rate of meteoroids and orbital debris on space tethers in circular orbits, at different altitudes and inclinations, as a function of the tether diameter to assess the survival probability of an electrodynamic tether system during typical de-orbiting missions. IADC members from three agencies, the Italian Space Agency (ASI), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), participated in the study and different computational approaches were specifically developed within the framework of the IADC task. This paper summarizes the content of the IADC AI 19.1 Final Report. In particular, it introduces the potential benefits and risks of using tethers in space, it describes the assumptions made in the study plan, it compares and discusses the results obtained by ASI, JAXA and NASA for the two tests proposed. Some general conclusions and recommendations are finally extrapolated from this massive and intensive piece of research. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper attempts to search the lost fragments from the near-synchronous US TitanIIIC transtage explosion of February 21, 1992, known as the second major fragmentation of a TitanIIIC transtage. This breakup was accidentally observed by the Maui GEODSS sensor, and then a total of 23 objects were reported from the breakup, no orbital data on any fragments has been generated by the SSN. In order to evaluate the debris cloud orbital evolution, we demonstrate the actual US TitanIIIC transtage explosion by using breakup model and orbit propagator. The perturbing accelerations, considered in this analysis are the non-spherical part of the Earth''s gravitational attraction, the gravitational attraction due to the Sun and Moon, and the solar radiation pressure effects. Finally, we will present a search strategy based on distribution of the right ascension of the ascending node about the catalogued objects and the debris particles from the US TitanIIIC transtage explosion. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Over 9000 satellites and other trackable objects are currently in orbit around the Earth, along with many smaller particles. As the low Earth orbit is not a limitless resource, some sort of debris mitigation measures are needed to solve the problem of unusable satellites and spent upper stages. De-orbiting devices based on the use of conducting tethers have been recently proposed as innovative solutions to mitigate the growth of orbital debris. However, electrodynamic tethers introduce unusual problems when viewed from the space debris perspective. In particular, because of their small diameter, tethers of normal design may have a high probability of being severed by impacts with relatively small meteoroids and orbital debris. This paper compares the results obtained at ISTI/CNR, the Kyushu University and NASA/JSC concerning the vulnerability to debris impacts on a specific conducting tether able to de-orbit spacecraft in inclinations up to and initial altitude less than 1400km. A double line tether design has been analyzed, in addition to the single wire solution, in order to reduce the tether vulnerability. The results confirm that the survivability concern is fully justified for a single line tether and no de-orbit mission, from the altitudes and inclinations considered, is possible if the tether diameter is smaller than a few millimeters. The survival probability is shown to grow for a double line configuration with a sufficiently high number of knots and loops. The results are strongly dependent on the environment model adopted and the MASTER-2001 orbital debris and meteoroids fluxes result in survival probabilities appreciably higher than those of ORDEM2000 coupled with the Grün meteoroids model. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

An active debris removal method using a laser is a promising technology for its advantage in contactless operations. This paper deals with the attitude control of an uncooperative target by a laser, which is an important phase before deorbiting. The difficulty of attitude control by the laser stems from the torque directional constraint because the laser generates thrust along the normal vector of the irradiated face irrespective of the irradiating direction. Thus, the control torque along the normal vector cannot be generated, which makes the attitude control with the laser torque challenging. To tackle this problem, this paper first designs a reference controller that assumes arbitrary control torques are available. Then, a method for determining the irradiating point is proposed so that the difference between the reference torque and the actual one is minimized. Although the proposed controller does not guarantee theoretical convergence to the desired attitude, the effectiveness of the proposed controller is numerically verified for a box-type object. Furthermore, the robustness to the uncertainties of thrust magnitude and direction is also examined by Monte Carlo simulations. • An attitude control method by laser ablation is proposed. • The method determines the irradiating point with respect to reference torque. • The method is effective under thrust magnitude uncertainty. • The method is effective under thrust directional uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of shortening the post-mission disposal (PMD) orbit lifetime (remaining orbit lifetime after PMD) from 25 years to 5 or 1 year. Using NEODEEM, the debris evolutionary model developed by Kyushu University and JAXA, the change in the orbital environment at various altitude bands for long-term stability and short-term safety are discussed. It was confirmed that the PMD compliance rate is more important than shortening the orbit lifetime for improving the long-term stability of the orbital environment. In the short term, the 5- or 1-year rule reduced the collision rate and collision avoidance frequency at an altitude below 700 km, more than the 25-year rule, thus shortening the PMD orbit lifetime improves short-term safety, especially at low altitudes. The paper also evaluates the effect of large constellations (LCs) and it was shown that shortening the PMD orbit lifetime of LCs improves short-term safety, but the long-term impact is dominated by the number of LCs that remain at high operational altitudes due to PMD failure. It shows that the post-mission disposal lifetime and required compliance rate should be set according to the number and size of objects expected to be launched in the future. • The effect of shortening post-mission-disposal lifetime from 25 years are shown. • Short-term safety can be improved by 5-year rule or 1-year rule. • PMD compliance rate is more important for the long-term stability. • Difference between an elliptical and a circular orbit for PMD is shown. • PMD requirement changed according to the characteristics of the large constellation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study introduces a new method to estimate the orbital parameters (inclination, nodal precession rate, and right ascension of the ascending node) of the broken-up object using in-situ debris measurements. To reduce collision probability with tiny debris generated from breakups of satellites, it is required to identify the origin of breakups and predict the orbit of debris. In general, small debris cannot be tracked from the ground, thus an in-situ measurement is an effective method to detect sub-millimeter-sized debris. Previous studies developed a method to identify the location of breakup origin from an in-situ measurement, however, it can be applied to an ideal situation where the detection occurs at the intersection of the orbit planes. This study introduces a new method to estimate the orbital parameters by fitting the model of geocentric declination to the measurement data. This method can be applied to practical situations that cannot be validated in previous studies. This paper also adopts iteratively reweighted least squares to improve estimation accuracy and mitigate initial value dependencies. [Display omitted] • A New method to estimate the orbital parameters of the broken-up object is derived. • Origin identification of breakup events in practical situations is simulated and validated. • Estimation accuracy is improved by adopting iteratively reweighted least squares. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract To date, there has been a lot of on-orbit satellite fragmentations since a Thor-Able upper stage exploded in space in 1961. Considering that even sub-millimeter-size debris are a big threat to operational satellites, then it can be said that detailed debris modelling is becoming an urgent task for sustainable space development. For accurate modelling, it is essential to know the accurate time of breakup. However, there is no effective method which can estimate the time precisely. Therefore, this study aims at constructing a new method for estimating the time of breakup precisely. This study focuses on orbital plane as a parameter and derives a new equation. This equation constraints orbital planes of fragments at breakup by using orbital elements of the broken-up object. The advantage of this equation is that the fragments can be evaluated by only inclination and right ascension of the ascending node which can guarantee relatively high accuracy even in a long-term propagation. For the estimation, this study proposes a hybrid method which combines the advantages of the constraint equation and the close approach analysis. As a result, by using officially reported data, it was confirmed that this hybrid method can estimate the time of breakup with an error of 1 min or less. It was also suggested that the difference in the estimated time between the hybrid method and the close approach analysis causes a large difference in predicted fragments. Highlights • A new constraint equation which can evaluate orbital planes of fragments is derived. • A hybrid method which combines the equation with a close approach analysis is proposed. • The hybrid method could estimate the time of breakup with an error of 1 min or less. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel method to simultaneously detect multiple trajectories of space debris in an observation image sequence to establish a reliable model for space debris environment in Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO). The debris in GEO often appear faintly in image sequences due to the high altitude. A simple but steady way to detect such faint debris is to decrease a threshold value of binarization applied to an image sequence during preprocessing. However, a low threshold value of binarization leads to extracting a large number of objects other than debris that become obstacles to detect debris trajectories. In order to detect debris from binarized image frames with massive obstacles, this work proposes a method that utilizes a cascade of numerical evaluations and a voting scheme to evaluate characteristics of the line segments obtained by connecting two image objects in different image frames, which are the candidates of debris trajectories. In the proposed method, the line segments corresponding to objects other than debris are filtered out using three types of characteristics, namely displacement, direction, and continuity. First, the displacement and direction of debris motion are evaluated to remove irrelevant trajectories. Then, the continuity of the remaining line segments is checked to find debris by counting the number of image objects appearing on or close to the line segments. Since checking the continuity can be regarded as a voting scheme, the proposed cascade algorithm can take advantage of the properties of voting method such as the Hough transform, i.e., the robustness against heavy noises and clutters, and ability of detecting multiple trajectories simultaneously. The experimental tests using real image sequences obtained in a past observation campaign demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Space debris smaller than 1 mm in size still have enough energy to cause a fatal damage on a spacecraft, but such tiny debris cannot be followed or tracked from the ground. Therefore, IDEA the project for In-situ Debris Environmental Awareness, which aims to detect sub-millimeter-size debris using a group of micro satellites, has been initiated at Kyushu University. First, this paper reviews the previous study on the nature of orbits on which debris may be detected through in-situ measurements proposed in the IDEA project. Second, this paper derives a simple equation that constrains the orbital plane on which debris is detected through in-situ measurements. Third, this paper also investigates the nature and sensitivity of this simple constraint equation to clear how frequently impacts have to be confirmed to reduce the measurement error. Finally, this paper introduces a torus model to describe the collision flux observed from the previous study approximately. This collision flux approximation agrees rather well with the observed collision flux. It is concluded, therefore, that the simple constraint equation and collision flux approximation introduced in this paper can replace the analytical method adopted by the previous study to conduct a further investigation more effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by successful extended missions such as the ISEE-3, an investigation for the extended mission that involves a lunar encounter following a Sun-Earth halo orbit mission is considered valuable. Most previous studies present the orbit-to-orbit transfers where the lunar phase is not considered. Intended for extended missions, the present work aims to solve for the minimum phasing ∆ V for various initial lunar phases. Due to the solution multiplicity of the two-point boundary value problem, the general constrained optimization algorithm that does not identify multiple feasible solutions is shown to miss minima. A two-step differential corrector with a two-body Lambert solver is developed for identifying multiple solutions. The minimum ∆ V associated with the short-way and long-way approaches can be recovered. It is acquired that the required ∆ V to cover all initial lunar phases is around 45 m/s for the halo orbit with out-of-plane amplitude A z greater than 3.5×10 5 km, and 14 m/s for a small halo orbit with A z =1×10 5 km. In addition, the paper discusses the phasing planning based on the ∆ V result and the shift of lunar phase with halo orbit revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Upper atmospheric densities during geomagnetic storms are usually poorly estimated due to a lack of clear understanding of coupling mechanisms between the thermosphere and magnetosphere. Consequently, the orbit determination and propagation for low-Earth-orbit objects during geomagnetic storms have large uncertainties. Artificial neural networks are often used to identify nonlinear systems in the absence of rigorous theory. In the present study, an attempt has been made to model the storm-time atmospheric density using neural networks. Considering the debate over the representative of geomagnetic storm effect, i.e. the geomagnetic indices ap and Dst, three neural network models (NNM) are developed with ap, Dst and a combination of ap and Dst respectively. The density data used for training the NNMs are derived from the measurements of the satellites CHAMP and GRACE. The NNMs are evaluated by looking at: (a) the mean residuals and the standard deviations with respect to the density data that are not used in training process, and (b) the accuracy of reconstructing the orbits of selected objects during storms employing each model. This empirical modeling technique and the comparisons with the models NRLMSIS-00 and Jacchia-Bowman 2008 reveal (1) the capability of neural networks to model the relationship between solar and geomagnetic activities, and density variations; and (2) the merits and demerits of ap and Dst when it comes to characterizing density variations during storms. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper demonstrates an initial orbit determination method that solves the problem by a genetic algorithm using two well-known solutions for the Lambert’s problem: universal variable method and Battin method. This paper also suggests an intuitive error evaluation method in terms of rotational angle and orbit shape by separating orbit elements into two groups. As reference orbit, mean orbit elements (original two-lines elements) and osculating orbit elements considering the J2 effect are adopted and compared. Our proposed orbit determination method has been tested with actual optical observations of a geosynchronous spacecraft. It should be noted that this demonstration of the orbit determination is limited to one test case. This observation was conducted during approximately 70min on 2013/05/15UT. Our method was compared with the orbit elements propagated by SGP4 using the TLE of the spacecraft. The result indicates that our proposed method had a slightly better performance on estimating orbit shape than Gauss’s methods and Escobal’s method by 120km. In addition, the result of the rotational angle is closer to the osculating orbit elements than the mean orbit elements by 0.02°, which supports that the estimated orbit is valid. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A stochastic method to estimate survivability of a double tether system is described in this paper. Double tether is a pair of parallel strings connected at every certain distance, in order to improve the survivability against collisions of space debris. First, probabilities of cut off on a tether is modeled, which is caused by a collision of space debris. Next, survivability of a double tethered system is formulated. And then, survivability of single and double tether systems are evaluated and compared according to an environmental model of space debris. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights • A constraint equation which applies to the nodal precession rate of a broken-up object is derived. • The constraint equation can provide candidates for the nodal precession rate of a broken-up object. • An effective procedure to estimate of the orbital parameters of a broken-up object is established. Abstract Even sub-millimeter-size debris could cause a fatal damage on a spacecraft. Such tiny debris cannot be followed up or tracked from the ground. Therefore, Kyushu University has initiated IDEA the project for In-situ Debris Environmental Awareness, which conducts in-situ measurements of sub-millimeter-size debris. One of the objectives is to estimate the location of on-orbit satellite fragmentations from in-situ measurements. The previous studies revealed that it is important to find out the right nodal precession rate to estimate the orbital parameters of a broken-up object properly. Therefore, this study derives a constraint equation that applies to the nodal precession rate of the broken-up object. This study also establishes an effective procedure to estimate properly the orbital parameters of a broken-up object with the constraint equation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes an algorithm to detect orbital objects that are small or moving at high apparent velocities from optical images by utilizing their faint streaks. In the conventional object-detection algorithm, a high signal-to-noise-ratio (e.g., 3 or more) is required, whereas in our proposed algorithm, the signals are summed along the streak direction to improve object-detection sensitivity. Lower signal-to-noise ratio objects were detected by applying the algorithm to a time series of images. The algorithm comprises the following steps: (1) image skewing, (2) image compression along the vertical axis, (3) detection and determination of streak position, (4) searching for object candidates using the time-series streak-position data, and (5) selecting the candidate with the best linearity and reliability. Our algorithm’s ability to detect streaks with signals weaker than the background noise was confirmed using images from the Australia Remote Observatory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work proposes a method to determine orbital plane of a micron-sized space debris cloud utilizing their impacts on measurement satellites. Given that debris impacts occur on a line of intersection between debris and satellites orbital planes, a couple of debris orbital parameters, right ascension of the ascending node, inclination, and nodal regression rate can be determined by impact times and locations measured from more than two satellites in different earth orbits. This paper proves that unique solution for the debris orbital parameters is obtained from the measurement data, and derives a computational scheme to estimate them. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is finally demonstrated by a simulation test, in which measurement data are obtained from a numerical simulation considering realistic debris’ and satellites’ orbits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The in-situ debris environment awareness system has been developed. The objective of the system is to measure small debris (between 100 μm and several cm) in orbit. The orbital distribution and the size distribution of the debris are not well understood. The size distribution is difficult to measure from the ground, although the size distribution is very important for the risk evaluation of the impact of debris on spacecraft. The in-situ measurement of the size distribution is useful for: (1) verification of meteoroid and debris environment models, (2) verification of meteoroid and debris environment evolution models, (3) real time detection of unexpected events, such as explosions and/or collisions on an orbit. This paper reports the development study of the in-situ debris measurement system and shows demonstration experiments and their results to describe the performance of the micro-debris sensor system. The sensor system for monitoring micro-debris with sizes ranging from 100 μm to a few mm must have a large detection area, while the constraints of space deployment require that these systems be low in mass, low in power, robust and have low telemetry requirements. For this reason, we have been developing a simple trans-film sensor. Thin and conductive stripes (copper) are formed with fine pitch (100 μm) on a thin film of nonconductive material (12.5-μm thick polyimide). A hypervelocity micro-particle impact is detected when one or more stripes are severed by perforation of the film. We designed a debris detector specialized for measuring the micro-debris size and collision rate. We then manufactured and calibrated the detector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper proposes a comprehensive approach to associate origins of space objects newly discovered during optical surveys in the geostationary region with spacecraft breakup events. A recent study has shown that twelve breakup events would be occurred in the geostationary region. The proposed approach utilizes orbital debris modeling techniques to effectively conduct prediction, detection, and classification of breakup fragments. Two techniques are applied to get probable results for origin identifications. First, we select an observation point where a high detection rate for one breakup event among others can be expected. Second, we associate detected tracklets, which denotes the signals associated with a physical object, with the prediction results according to their angular velocities. The second technique investigates which breakup event a tracklet would belong to, and its probability by using the k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) algorithm. In this paper we conduct optical observations of breakup fragments to verify the proposed approach. We selected a well-known breakup event of the rocket body US Titan 3C Transtage (1968-081E) as the primary observation target, and then we conduct optical observations by campaign between two sensors in Taiwan and one sensor in Japan. While three nights observations, we detect 96 tracklets that are uncorrelated with the Space Surveillance Network catalogue at the observation epochs, and finally 50 tracklets among them are associated with the breakup event of 1968-081E. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper introduces QSAT, the satellite for polar plasma observation. The QSAT project began in 2006 as an initiative by graduate students of Kyushu University, and has the potential to contribute greatly to IHY (International Heliophysical Year) by showing to the world the beauty, importance, and relevance of space science. The primary objectives of the QSAT mission are (1) to investigate plasma physics in the Earth’s aurora zone in order to better understand spacecraft charging, and (2) to conduct a comparison of the field-aligned current observed in orbit with ground-based observations. The QSAT project can provide education and research opportunities for students in an activity combining space sciences and satellite engineering. The QSAT satellite is designed to be launched in a piggyback fashion with the Japanese launch vehicle H-IIA. The spacecraft bus is being developed at the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics of Kyushu University with collaboration of Fukuoka Institute of Technology. Regarding the payload instruments, the Space Environment Research Center of Kyushu University is developing the magnetometers, whereas the Laboratory of Spacecraft Environment Interaction Engineering of Kyushu Institute of Technology is developing the plasma probes. We aim to be ready for launch in 2009 or later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]