Patrick Seitzer, Department of Astronomy – University of Michigan, Ed Barker, LZ Technology, Brent Buckalew, Jacobs Jets, Andrew Burkhardt, University of Virginia, Heather Cowardin, University of Texas El Paso – Jacobs Jets, James Frith, University of Texas El Paso – Jacobs Jets, Catherine Kaleida, Space Telescope Science Institute, Susan M. Lederer, NASA Orbital Debris Program Office (JSC)
Keywords: Orbital debris, GEO, telescope
Abstract:
There are two confirmed breakups of Titan 3C Transtage rocket bodies at GEO. The first was the breakup of 1968-081E (SSN03432) in 1992, resulting in a number of tracked objects in the public catalog. The second was 1969-013B (SSN03692) in 2014, which to date has no objects in the public catalog. The 6.5-m Magellan telescope, ‘Walter Baade’, at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile has been used in an optical search for faint debris from these two breakups. All observations were rate tracked at the expected rate of debris. For 1968-081E, rates were generated using artificial TLEs using a range of mean anomalies from an average TLE for known objects from this breakup. For the search for 1969-013B, rates were generated from a simulated debris cloud produced using the NASA Standard Satellite Breakup Model. Based on the observed angular rates of detected objects, no objects brighter than 20th magnitude (approximately 10 cm) could be associated with the 1968-081E breakup, while one object brighter than 20th magnitude could be associated with 1969-013B.
Date of Conference: September 19-22, 2017
Track: Orbital Debris