Space Debris: Reentry and Collision Risk

Abstract

The increasing number of uncontrolled objects orbiting the Earth justifies efforts to observe and track them in order to avoid collisions among them and operational artificial satellites. These studies involve different disturbances and resonances in the orbital motion of these objects. Most of the cataloged space debris are found in low earth orbits (LEO). This work studies the orbital motion of space debris around the Planet. Real data from the 2-line element set provided by NORAD (North American Defense) are used to compare with the results obtained for orbital motions. The geopotential and atmospheric drag are used as perturbations in the SGP4 model. Figures show the time behavior of the orbital elements of the space debris in the process of reentry in the Earth. Solutions for the space debris mitigation are necessary