"Space is big/Space is dark/You'll always find/A place to park/Burma Shave". - S. Harris.

While that might have been the truth when Burma Shave was still in business (1925-1963), it's not the case today. The space between the Earth and the Moon is filled with all kinds of trash, ranging from the mundane, such as burnt out rocket casings and broken satellites, to the bizarre, including a spacesuit (fortunately without a wearer)! Although several Space Shuttle missions have demonstrated that satellites can be patched up in orbit or brought back to Earth for more extensive repairs, a broken satellite is normally written off and left to its own devices. Unlike junk on Earth, which gets picked up and hauled to a recycling station or a dump, space debris can circle the Earth for years and years until it slams into something, creating yet more space debris. Space debris can also be caused by experiments with anti-satellite weapons. The space debris plague worsened in 2007 after the Chinese destroyed their own Fengyun-1C, one of their old weather satellites, with a missile, creating a cloud of junk that will spread out beyond the space through which the Fengyun-1C travelled.

Currently, there are several efforts to mitigate the problem:

• Pieces of space debris are tracked by radar, so that spacecraft can be steered around them.
• Spacecraft can be built to survive impacts from space debris. This will also protect them from meteoroid impacts.
• Several of the spacefaring nations have agreed to measures to reduce the number of derelict satellites that could hit working satellites by steering aging satellites into otherwise useless orbits or into paths that will cause them to harmlessly burn up in the atmosphere of the Earth.

This bibliography will cover resources on space debris and the hazards it presents to our continuing use of space. All items are available at the Headquarters Library, except as noted. NASA Headquarters employees and contractors: call (358-0172) or email Library@hq.nasa.gov for information on borrowing or in-library use of any of these items. Members of the public, contact your Local Library for the availibilty of these items. NASA Headquarters employees can request additional materials or research on this topic. The Library welcomes your comments or suggestions about this webpage.

NASA Policies and Standards

The following standards, policies, and procedural requirements can be accessed by anyone through the NASA Online Directives Information System or through the NASA Standards website:

 

NASA Policy Directive 8010.3B: Notification of Intent to Decommission or Terminate Operating Space Systems and Terminate Missions

 

NASA Procedural Requirements 8715.6A: NASA Procedural Requirements for Limiting Orbital Debris

 

NASA Handbook 8719.14: Handbook for Limiting Orbital Debris

 

NASA Technical Standard 8719.14: Process for Limiting Orbital Debris

Books

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Special Project Report: MEO/LEO constellations: US Laws, Policies, and Regulations on Orbital Debris Mitigation. Reston, VA: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1999.

KF2479 .S67 1999 BOOKSTACKS

 

Campbell, Jonathan W. Using Lasers in Space: Laser Orbital Debris and Asteroid Deflection. Maxwell Air Force Base, AL: Center for Strategy and Technology, Air War College, Air University, 2000.

TL1499 .C367 2000 BOOKSTACKS

 

Klinkrad, H. Space Debris: Models and Risk Analysis. Berlin, Germany, New York, NY: Springer; Chichester, UK: Published in association with Praxis Pub., 2006.

TL1499 .K55 2006 BOOKSTACKS

 

Milne, Antony. Sky Static: The Space Debris Crisis. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002.

TL1499 .M55 2002 BOOKSTACKS

 

National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Space Shuttle Meteoroid/Debris Risk Management. Protecting the Space Shuttle from Meteoroids and Orbital Debris. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1997.

TL795.5 .P77 1997 BOOKSTACKS

 

__________. Committee on International Space Station Meteoroid/Debris Risk Management. Protecting the Space Station from Meteoroids and Orbital Debris. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1997.

TL797 .P77 1997 BOOKSTACKS

 

Smirnov, Nickolay N. (ed.). Space Debris: Hazard Evaluation and Mitigation. London, UK: Taylor and Francis, 2002.

TL1499 .S634 2002 BOOKSTACKS

 

Taylor, Michael W. Orbital Debris: Technical and Legal Issues and Solutions. Montreal, Que.: Institute of Air and Space Law, Faculty of Law, McGill University, 2006.

TL1499 .T1395 2006 BOOKSTACKS

 

United Nations. General Assembly. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. Scientific and Technical Subcommittee. Technical Report on Space Debris: Text of the Report Adopted by the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. New York, NY: United Nations, 1999.

TL1499 .T43 1999 BOOKSTACKS

E-books

All e-books listed here are available to NASA civil servants and contractors through the Books 24x7 service of SATERN.

 

Olla, Phillip (ed.). Commerce in Space: Infrastructures, Technologies, and Applications. IGI Global, 2008.

Articles and Reports

Arnold, Jim, et al. Handbook for Designing MMOD Protection. JSC-64399. NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, Jan. 28, 2009.

(20090010053: (July 2009) NTRS)

 

Cepollina, Frank J., et al. Method and Associated Apparatus for Capturing, Servicing, and De-orbiting Earth Satellites Using Robotics. US Patent no. 7293743. NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, Nov. 13, 2007.

(20080009621: (April 2008) NTRS)

 

Gavin, Richard T. "NASA's Orbital Debris Conjuction Assessment and Collision Avoidance Strategy", in: 2010 AAS Guidance and Control Conference, Breckenridge, CO, Feb. 6-10, 2010.

(20100005139: (Feb. 2010) NTRS)

 

Hyde, James L., et al. "Micrometeoroid and Orbital Debris Threat Mitigation Techniques for the Space Shuttle Orbiter", in: Fifth European Conference on Space Debris, Darmstadt, Germany, March 30-April 2, 2009.

(20090010336: (July 2009) NTRS)

 

Johnson, Nicholas L. "The Disposal of Spacecraft and Launch Vehicle Stages in Low Earth Orbit", in: Proceedings of the Advancement of Space Safety Conference, Chicago, IL, May 14-16, 2007.

(20070021588: (2007) NTRS)

 

__________. "The New Jettison Policy for the International Space Station", in: Thirty-sixth Scientific Assembly of COSPAR, Beijing, China, July 16-23, 2006.

(20060024715: (2006) NTRS)

 

__________. "Orbital Debris: the Growing Threat to Space Operations", in: 2010 AAS Guidance and Control Conference, Breckenridge, CO, Feb. 6-10, 2010.

(20100004498: (Feb. 2010) NTRS)

 

__________. "Preserving the Near-Earth Space Environment with Green Engineering and Operations", in: NASA Green Engineering Masters Forum, San Francisco, CA, Sept. 30-Oct. 1, 2009.

(20090032041: (Sept. 2009) NTRS)

 

Johnson, Nicholas L., et al. History of On-Orbit Satellite Fragmentations. NASA/TM-2008-214779. NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, May 2008.

(20080022435: (July 2008) NTRS)

 

Liou, J.C., and Nicholas L. Johnson. "A Sensitivity Study on the Effectiveness of Active Debris Removal in LEO", Fifty-eighth International Astronautical Congress, Hyderabad, India, Sept. 24-28, 2007.

(20070013702: (2007) NTRS)

 

Matney, Mark. "Statistical Issues for Uncontrolled Reentry Hazards", in: International Association of Advancement in Space Safety, Rome, Italy, Oct. 21-23, 2008.

(20080045805: (Dec. 2008) NTRS)

 

Wilson, William C., Neil C. Coffey, and Eric I. Madaras. Leak Detection and Location Technology Assessment for Aerospace Applications. NASA/TM-2008-215347. Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, Sept. 2008.

(20080041598: (Nov. 2008) NTRS)

Internet Resources

The Aerospace Corporation. Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies. 2010 [March 3, 2010].

http://www.aero.org/capabilities/cords/index.html

 

European Space Agency. European Space Operations Center. ESOC: Focal point for ESA space debris activities. April 11, 2008 [March 3, 2010].

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ESOC/SEMU2CW4QWD_0.html

 

Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee. 2006. [March 3, 2010].

http://www.iadc-online.org/

This site links to several studies on space debris and international compacts to mitigate the problem.

 

Kinard, William H. Space Environments and Technology Archive System (SETAS). Jan. 16, 2007 [March 3, 2010].

http://setas-www.larc.nasa.gov/index.html

This site holds a great deal of information on the wear and tear on different materials and structures in orbit, some of which can be attributed to space debris.

 

Stansbery, Eugene. NASA Orbital Debris Program Office. July 2009 [March 3, 2010].

http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/

Note: This is the main NASA site for studies of space debris.

 

United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. Space Debris and Nuclear Power Sources. 2009 [March 3, 2010].

http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/natact/sdnps/index.html

 

Vorsmann, Peter. Space Debris. April 23, 2008 [March 3, 2010].

http://www.ilr.ing.tu-bs.de/forschung/raumfahrt/spacedebris/index2_html?PreferredLanguage=English