Space Junk Robert O

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Space JunkRobert ONeill
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So What?

• Does the laws of physics apply what goes up
  must come down in all cases?
• If it does come down, does it always land in the
  ocean as we have often been told?
• How much stuff is up there to make Denniss list?
• Who put it up there?
• What has that got to do with Business?

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24,972 Satellites Feb 2000 Situation
Report Goddard Space Station
..there are over 100,000 pieces of debris large
enough to cause the loss of a satellite Dr.
William Ailor
High Earth Orbit
Medium Earth Orbit
Most Commercial Satellites reside in GEO orbit
Low Earth Orbit
200 2,000 km
Geosynchronous Orbit
United States Space Command, tracks more than
8,500 objects larger than 10cm in LEO
2000 km higher
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View of an orbital debris hole made in the panel
of the Solar Max experiment.
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On 21 January 2001, a Delta 2 third stage, known
as a PAM-D (Payload Assist Module - Delta),
re-entered the atmosphere over the Middle East.
The titanium motor casing of the PAM-D, weighing
about 70 kg, landed in Saudi Arabia about 240 km
from the capital of Riyadh.
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Another Delta 2 second stage reentered on 27
April 2000 over South Africa. In this incident,
three objects were recovered along a path nearly
100 km long the main stainless steel propellant
tank, a titanium pressurant tank, and a portion
of the main engine nozzle assembly.
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Solid rocket motor (SRM) slag. Aluminum oxide
slag is a byproduct of SRMs. Orbital SRMs used to
boost satellites into higher orbits are
potentially a significant source of centimeter
sized orbital debris. This piece was recovered
from a test firing of a Shuttle solid rocket
booster.
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Implications to Business

• In 2002, 86.2 billion industry
• More and more private venture satellites are
  launched each year
• GPS, Storm monitoring etc
• No one is policing the trafficinvestments are at
  risk
• Liabilities for youre the debris created from an
  impact
• Spin off effect, 1 impact leads to several more

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My Paper

• Space Junk collectionmight be a booming
  business..
• The implications to business if LEO is closed off
  to new deployments of satellites
• The Role of Governments in regulating and
  responding to situations
• The impact to consumers

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Next time you are sitting in your hot tub and
looking skyward you see a falling star.
Ask yourselfwhos garbage is that and what is
the collateral damage?