ABSTRACT
Introduction ............................................................................................................ 381 Orbital Debris ......................................................................................................... 382 Managing Orbital Debris ...................................................................................... 385
Design and Operational Mitigation ............................................................. 385 Earth-Based Removal Programs .................................................................. 385 Intervention Missions .................................................................................. 385
Archaeology and Heritage of Orbital Objects ...................................................... 386 Vanguard 1 ............................................................................................................. 387
Aesthetic ....................................................................................................... 388 Historic ......................................................................................................... 388 Scienti c ....................................................................................................... 389 Social ............................................................................................................ 389
Survey of Early Satellites in Orbit .........................................................................390 Risk Assessment .................................................................................................... 391 Conclusions ............................................................................................................ 394 Further Reading .................................................................................................... 395 References .............................................................................................................. 396
Since the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957, human material culture in the form of satellites, launch vehicle upper stages, mission-related debris, and “space junk” has proliferated in Earth orbit. There are now signi cantly more than 10,000 trackable objects circling the Earth between low Earth orbit at around 200 km and the “graveyard orbit” around the geostationary ring at 35,000 km above the surface of the Earth.
