Current Status of Unmanned Spacecraft Design to Limit Orbital Debris

Abstract

In order to limit orbital debris, unmanned spacecraft design needs to comply with ISO 24113 ‘Space systems - Space debris mitigation requirements’ or any standards equivalent to it. In addition to that, to limit orbital debris generated by collisions, unmanned spacecrafts should be protected against small debris impact which may cause failures of critical components for post mission disposal. This paper proposes a spacecraft design procedure based on the quantitative estimation of the small debris impact.