Abstract:

This paper studies the impact fluxes calculation for the orbiting space objects via the Chan’s model which does not invoke either the kinetic theory of gases model or the Poisson distribution function. Four cases are discussed for the space objects on elliptical orbits passing through a thin spherical shell surrounding the spacecraft. The paper also compares the circular orbit assumption with the elliptical assumption. The satellite Iridium 86 is used to estimate the impact fluxes under both assumptions. It shows that the ratio of the impact flux between the elliptical orbits case and the circular case decreases from about 4 times to 1.4 times as the thickness increases. The statistical number of the objects gets a big fluctuation as the increased thickness in circular case. The elliptical case is 60 times more than the circular case when the shell’s thickness equals to 5 km.

Key words: Collision warning, Impact flux, Space objects, Spacecraft, Satellite orbits