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Limiting Future Collision Risk to Spacecraft An Assessment of NASA's Meteoroid and Orbital Debris Programs (2011) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix E: Glossary
Pages 116-124

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From page 116...
... Air Force Mishap Prevention Program) provides guidance for the development of a comprehensive mishap prevention program for current and future space systems, including the minimum risk probability parameters required for safe space operations and testing.
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From page 117...
... that produces a first-order assessment of the risk of human casualty associated with uncontrolled space vehicle reentries. decay -- natural loss of altitude of a space object, culminating in reentry into Earth's atmosphere.
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From page 118...
... ESA Master -- a European Space Agency space debris and meteoroid environment model that describes the human-made and natural particulate environment of Earth and its incident flux on user-defined target orbits down to an impactor diameter of 1 micron. Fast Air Target Encounter Penetration (FATEPEN)
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From page 119...
... Meteoroid Environment Office -- NASA's technical lead for defining the meteoroid environment using radar and optical measurements, for performing data analysis, and for developing models that can be used together with tests results from the Hypervelocity Impact Technology Facility at JSC. microcrater -- crater produced on spacecraft surfaces or from rocks on airless solar system bodies on the order of 1 mm in size or smaller.
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From page 120...
... orbit conjunction message -- a message format that allows communication between government and commercial agencies about spacecraft orbits. orbital debris -- space objects in Earth orbit that are not functional or operational spacecraft, including spent rocket bodies, mission-related objects, fragments from breakups and deterioration, sodium potassium radiator coolant from Russian nuclear-powered spacecraft, and aluminum oxide particles from solid rocket exhaust; such debris can be artificial or natural.
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From page 121...
... The mean altitude of such an orbit is approximately 20,200 km. • geostationary Earth orbit -- nearly circular orbit with a period of approximately 1,436 minutes and an inclination close to zero degrees.
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From page 122...
... rocket body -- any stage of a launch vehicle (including apogee kick motors) left in Earth orbit at the end of a spacecraft delivery (launch and orbital insertion)
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From page 123...
... space object -- any object in space, including the natural meteoroid environment, as well as orbiting objects such as individual spacecraft, rocket bodies, fragmentation debris, and mission-related objects. Space Surveillance Network (SSN)
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From page 124...
... Although such meteoroids do not have a clear common parentage, the sporadic background meteoroid population as detected at Earth shows strong directionality reflect ing the general orbital properties of the parent body population. SSP 30435 -- Space Station Program Natural Environment Definition for Design; includes the environmental models used to design the space station as they were defined in 1994.
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Key Terms

  • earth orbit
  • space object
  • space surveillance
  • meteoroid environment
  • computer code

  • european space
  • space agency
  • ballistic limit
  • mean altitude
  • molniya orbits

  • rocket bodies
  • environment model
  • surveillance network
  • space debris
  • space station

  • space structure
  • space vehicle
  • solid rocket
  • nasa computer
  • risk associated

  • geosynchronous earth
  • hypervelocity impact
  • debris environment
  • launch vehicle
  • assessment risk

  • radar cross
  • low earth
  • geostationary transfer
  • circular orbit
  • prevention program


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