On the “Space debris and long-term sustainability” ASI-INAF agreement

Di Cecco A., Castronuovo M., Bianchi G., Arcidiacono C., Bono G., Buzzoni A., Colombo C., Marzo C., Micela G., Olivieri L., Pardini C., Piergentili F., Rossi A.

Space debris; Sustainability; Observations; Modeling 

The Italian Space Agency (ASI) is supporting numerous projects for the scientific research on space debris. Thanks to an Agreement between ASI and the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), signed in 2023 and based on a long-standing collaboration, both observational activities and theoretical investigations are conducted. In particular, several activities concern the use of national telescopes to characterize space debris with optical filters in Johnson-Cousins and SLOAN bands, the development of a network of small and cheap optical cameras to track space objects, the modeling of fragmentations due to impacts or explosions, long-term orbit evolution of the space debris population and re-entry window estimation in case of re-entry of large objects and the assessment of the future evolution of the space environment through debris indexes. This Agreement also supports ASI for the participation to the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) and other international forums, thanks to the collaboration with experts belonging to different national research institutes and universities. Moreover, fellowships for young researchers and PhD students are also funded. In this paper we present the scientific and technical activities carried out in the framework of the ASI-INAF Agreement on “Space debris and long-term sustainability”, including involved facilities, objectives and expected results.

Publisher: International Astronautical Federation (IAF)