Educational
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Space Debris

Orbital Space Debris References

The following is a small list of references to material on orbital space debris.

Books

  • Artificial Space Debris, Nicholas L Johnson and Darren S McKnight, published by Orbit Book Company Florida, 1987, ISBN 0-89464-012-7

    (this was the first published book completely devoted to Orbital Space Debris)

  • Orbital Debris: A Technical Assessment, (US) National Research Council, published by National Academy Press Washington DC, 1995, ISBN 0-309-05125-8 ISBN 0-89464-012-7

    (this book can now be read on-line)

Orbital Debris Book Cover

Journals

  • Advances in Space Research (published by Pergamon) is a good source of papers on orbital space debris and has devoted several past issues exclusively to this topic.
  • Orbital Debris Quarterly News (published by the NASA Orbital Debris Program Office). Current and past news

Papers

  • Collision Frequency of Artificial Satellites: The Creation of a Debris Belt, Donald J Kessler and Burton G Cour-Palais, Journal of Geophysical Research, v83(#A6) June 1, 1978, pp2637-2646 (this is a classic/historical paper by two pioneers in the field)

Websites

Material prepared by John Kennewell

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