Assessing Terra Disposal Orbit Candidates from an Orbital Debris Perspective

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Assessing Terra Disposal Orbit Candidates from an Orbital Debris Perspective

Abraham, Andrew J. / Thompson, Roger C. / Mantziaras, Dimitrios C.

The NASA Terra satellite is reaching the end of its mission life. Because the satellite resides in the 705 km Earth Science Constellation, disposal strategies need to be considered to remove it from this densely populated operational orbit. Of critical importance was the need to examine the future potential risk to other satellite residents of the 705 km constellation due to an unexpected breakup event of the Terra satellite post-disposal. This study quantifies the comparative risk of debris impacts associated with the two leading candidate disposal orbits (701 km vs. 686 km) and characterizes the suitability of each orbit for the purpose of long-term spacecraft disposal. The increase in collision risk to any member of the 705 km Earth Science Constellation is very modest. The long-term, average, total risk (including the ambient background risk) due to a Terra breakup at a disposal of -19 km (i.e., 686 km) relative to the 705 km constellation is 9.7 × 10(exp -6) impacts/day versus 1.0 × 10(exp -5) impacts/day for a disposal of only -4 km (i.e., 701 km). For perspective, note that the nominal space background risk to the 705 km constellation is 9.2 × 10(exp -6) impacts/day which implies a very modest increase in risk (approximately 3% difference between the two cases) due to a Terra breakup in either disposal orbit.