A review of airborne observations for space debris re-entry break-up and dispersion measurements

Abstract

Airborne observations provide opportunities to collect rare and unique data from space debris re-entries. To date, six different observations of space debris have been undertaken, collecting spectral and spatial data to help understand debris break-up and dispersion. The data is important to help validate computational space debris break-up models. A particular focus to date has been on the spectral data collection, and results have helped understand the sequence of debris break-up by identifying individual elements as they are released in time. Due to the resourcing required, a limited amount of work has been undertaken on trajectory analysis for dispersion measurements. A noted downside of the observations to date is that all the resourcing has gone into the observations and data collection, and then relied on self-motivated researchers to undertake detailed analysis. The ever-increasing amount of space debris drives the need for a better understanding of space debris break-up and dispersion and there is a clear need for invaluable flight data for further model validation.