The Collisional Evolution of Orbital Debris in Geopotential Wells and Disposal Orbits

<p>This thesis investigates the orbital debris evolution in the geosynchronous disposal orbit regime and within geosynchronous orbits effected by the geopotential wells. A propagator is developed for the accurate simulation of GEO specific orbits and the required perturbations are determined and described. Collisions are then simulated in the selected regimes using a low velocity breakup model derived from the NASA EVOLVE breakup model. The simulations described in this thesis consider a set of perturbations including the geopotential, solar and lunar gravity, and solar radiation pressure forces. This thesis is based on a prior paper and additionally seeks to address an issue in simulating East-West trapped objects. The results show that this propagator successfully simulates the presence of all wells and the East-West entrapment, and the required perturbations are outlined. Five collision test cases were simulated, one for each type of entrapment and an additional for the disposal orbit.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

MS in Aerospace Engineering

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Aerospace Engineering

Year dc:date.available

2017

Author dc:creator

• Polzine, Benjamin

Contributors dc:contributor

• Kira Abercromby

• Breakup
• Perturbation
• Debris
• Astrodynamics

Identifier

10.15368/theses.2017.15

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.calpoly.edu:theses-2920