Debris evolution and lifetime following an orbital breakup

Nomenclature A = projected area of the spacecraft d = distance traveled through the cloud E' loss in energy due to heat and light Me = empirical function of the collision velocity Mi = mass of ith object ra/ = mass of /th particle (fragment) N = number of fragments of mass m and greater «/ = number of particles moving at a velocity Q = energy for the spread of fragments V = volume of cloud Vj = velocity of /th object Krel = relative velocity at collision v/ = velocity of /th paticle vr velocity of spacecraft in the cloud p density of particles in the cloud