Orbital Debris
Orbital Debris

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1995-07-07

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 0309051258

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Since the beginning of space flight, the collision hazard in Earth orbit has increased as the number of artificial objects orbiting the Earth has grown. Spacecraft performing communications, navigation, scientific, and other missions now share Earth orbit with spent rocket bodies, nonfunctional spacecraft, fragments from spacecraft breakups, and other debris created as a byproduct of space operations. Orbital Debris examines the methods we can use to characterize orbital debris, estimates the magnitude of the debris population, and assesses the hazard that this population poses to spacecraft. Potential methods to protect spacecraft are explored. The report also takes a close look at the projected future growth in the debris population and evaluates approaches to reducing that growth. Orbital Debris offers clear recommendations for targeted research on the debris population, for methods to improve the protection of spacecraft, on methods to reduce the creation of debris in the future, and much more.

Limiting Future Collision Risk to Spacecraft
Limiting Future Collision Risk to Spacecraft

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2011-12-16

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 0309219744

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Derelict satellites, equipment and other debris orbiting Earth (aka space junk) have been accumulating for many decades and could damage or even possibly destroy satellites and human spacecraft if they collide. During the past 50 years, various National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) communities have contributed significantly to maturing meteoroid and orbital debris (MMOD) programs to their current state. Satellites have been redesigned to protect critical components from MMOD damage by moving critical components from exterior surfaces to deep inside a satellite's structure. Orbits are monitored and altered to minimize the risk of collision with tracked orbital debris. MMOD shielding added to the International Space Station (ISS) protects critical components and astronauts from potentially catastrophic damage that might result from smaller, untracked debris and meteoroid impacts. Limiting Future Collision Risk to Spacecraft: An Assessment of NASA's Meteoroid and Orbital Debris Program examines NASA's efforts to understand the meteoroid and orbital debris environment, identifies what NASA is and is not doing to mitigate the risks posed by this threat, and makes recommendations as to how they can improve their programs. While the report identified many positive aspects of NASA's MMOD programs and efforts including responsible use of resources, it recommends that the agency develop a formal strategic plan that provides the basis for prioritizing the allocation of funds and effort over various MMOD program needs. Other necessary steps include improvements in long-term modeling, better measurements, more regular updates of the debris environmental models, and other actions to better characterize the long-term evolution of the debris environment.

Space Force Pioneers
Space Force Pioneers

Author: David Christopher Arnold

Publisher: Naval Institute Press

Published: 2024-11-19

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 168247173X

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Featuring biographical chapters on the leaders who served in space roles in the U.S. Air Force, Army, or Marine Corps, including officers who experienced the celestial skies firsthand as astronauts, Space Force Pioneers aims to enhance the reader’s understanding of character and leadership in military space from the experiences of these elite, ground-breaking leaders. The opening chapter explains in detail how the United States Space Force evolved from the Air Force. It is followed by ten biographical chapters that examine the stellar careers of space pioneers and illuminate their varied leadership styles. The chapter authors, all experts on the subject matter, engagingly capture the essence of these impressive individuals by incorporating information derived from the personal papers of their subjects and—in some cases—oral histories and interviews, along with other historical sources. They make clear the lasting contributions each of these leaders made to military space while serving in or out of uniform. Space Force Pioneers offers insight and analysis into how these unique leaders have operated in the performance of their duties, as well as chronicling changes in military space over the past four decades. The volume concludes with a broad and probing interpretation of contemporary space leadership, which offers a vehicle for comparing the accomplishments of these distinctive military space leaders.

Climate of the Past, Present and Future
Climate of the Past, Present and Future

Author: Javier Vinós

Publisher: Critical Science Press

Published: 2022-09-20

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 8412586700

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This book is an unorthodox ground-breaking scientific study on natural climate change and its contribution to ongoing multi-centennial global warming. The book critically reviews the effect of the following on climate: - Milankovitch cycles - abrupt glacial (Dansgaard-Oeschger) events - Holocene climate variability - the 1500-year cycle - solar activity - volcanic eruptions - greenhouse gases - energy transport Applying the scientific method to available evidence reveals that some of these phenomena are profoundly misunderstood by most researchers. Milankovitch cycles are tied to orbital obliquity, not to orbital precessional summer insolation; glacial megatides might have triggered abrupt Dansgaard-Oeschger events; and tides are likely responsible for the related 1500-year climate cycle. Climate change affects volcanic eruptions more than the opposite; and secular variations in solar activity are more important to climate change during the Holocene than greenhouse gases. In this book, we see how important natural climate change has been on human societies of the past. It also produces new climate projections for the 21st century and when the next glaciation could happen. What emerges from this study of natural climate change is a central theme: Variations in the transport of energy from the tropics to the poles have been neglected as a cause of climate change, and solar activity variations affect climate by modulating this transport. The author tells us: –Transporting more energy from a greenhouse gas-rich region, the tropics, to a greenhouse gas-poor region, the poles, increases the amount of energy lost at the top of the atmosphere. The effect resembles a reduction in the greenhouse gas content.– The book presents the Winter-Gatekeeper Hypothesis on how variations in solar activity regulate Earth's energy transport and in so doing affect atmospheric circulation, the rotation of the planet, and the El Niño/Southern Oscillation. This book is oriented toward students and academics in the climate sciences and climate anthropology and should also appeal to readers interested in the science of natural climate change. The repercussions of Climate of the Past, Present and Future are far reaching. By uncovering a strong natural climate change component, it provides a novel view of anthropogenic climate change, fossil energy use, and our future climate; a view quite different from the IPCC's gloomy projections.

The Orbital Perspective
The Orbital Perspective

Author: Astronaut Ron Garan

Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Published: 2015-02-02

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 1626562482

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For astronaut Ron Garan, living on the International Space Station was a powerful, transformative experience—one that he believes holds the key to solving our problems here on Earth. On space walks and through windows, Garan was struck by the stunning beauty of the Earth from space but sobered by knowing how much needed to be done to help this troubled planet. And yet on the International Space Station, Garan, a former fighter pilot, was working work side by side with Russians, who only a few years before were “the enemy.” If fifteen nationalities could collaborate on one of the most ambitious, technologically complicated undertakings in history, surely we can apply that kind of cooperation and innovation toward creating a better world. That spirit is what Garan calls the “orbital perspective.” Garan vividly conveys what it was like learning to work with a diverse group of people in an environment only a handful of human beings have ever known. But more importantly, he describes how he and others are working to apply the orbital perspective here at home, embracing new partnerships and processes to promote peace and combat hunger, thirst, poverty, and environmental destruction. This book is a call to action for each of us to care for the most important space station of all: planet Earth. You don't need to be an astronaut to have the orbital perspective. Garan's message of elevated empathy is an inspiration to all who seek a better world.