Meteoroid and Space Debris Risk Assessment for Satellites Orbiting the Earth/Moon

Abstract

Interplanetary meteoroids and space debris can impact satellites orbiting the Earth or spacecraft traveling to the Moon. Targeting China Space Station (CSS), 7 satellites selected from the constellation of Beidou Navigation Satellite System Phase III (BDS-3), and 3 spacecraft orbiting the Moon, we have adopted in the paper the Meteoroid Engineering Model 3, Divine-Staubach meteoroid environment model, and Jenniskens-McBride meteoroid steam model to analyze the meteoroid environment with the mass range of 10–6~10 g. Orbital Debris Engineering Model 3.1 space debris model is used to analyze the orbital debris environment faced by these satellites. The flux of space debris with a size larger than 100 μm is compared with that of the meteoroids. The results show that the space debris flux encountered by China Space Station is much higher than that of the meteoroids with sizes in the above range. And quite the opposite, the meteoroids flux impacting the 7 satellites from the BDS-3 is higher. Upon adopting the double-layer Whipple protection measure, the catastrophic collision flux of these satellites encountering meteoroids is about 10–6 times of that without protection, or even less, implying that the Whipple protection effectively guarantees the safety of the satellites in orbit. Besides, it is also found that the flux of the high-density meteoroid population encountered by each satellite is greater than that of the low-density population, whereas the impact velocity is lower for each satellite. These results can aid the orbit selection and the protection design for satellites and spacecraft.

Keywords

• Meteoroid environment model
• Space debris model
• Ballistic limit equation
• Impact risk assessment