Open AccessClose Approaches of Debris to LARES Satellite During Its First Four Years of Operation
Author(s) -
Claudio Paris,
Giampiero Sindoni,
Tommaso Di Sabato
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
transactions on environment and electrical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2450-5730
DOI - 10.22149/teee.v2i1.87
Subject(s) - space debris , satellite , debris , space (punctuation) , orbit (dynamics) , agency (philosophy) , population , remote sensing , geodesy , aerospace engineering , geography , computer science , meteorology , engineering , medicine , philosophy , epistemology , operating system , environmental health
Since its launch in February 2012, the LAser RElativity Satellite (LARES) of the Italian Space Agency experienced four close approaches with space debris. LARES orbits at an altitude of 1450 km, in a region where the density of space debris has a peak. However, the probability of an impact with a debris during the operational life of the satellite was reasonably low. The analysis of the close approaches identified three of the objects, that are from two peculiar population of objects. This paper discusses the problem of space debris in low orbit, the approaches occurred with LARES, and some possible scenarios related to space regulations and space law in case of an impact.