Determining mass fluxes of space debris upon demise in the atmosphere

IF 3.4 2区物理与天体物理 Q1 ENGINEERING, AEROSPACE

Acta Astronautica Pub Date : 2025-09-24 DOI:10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.09.036

José P. Ferreira, Joseph Wang

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The number of anthropogenic objects orbiting the Earth is expected to increase significantly with ongoing plans for large constellations of small satellites. As most space debris burns up during reentry, the long-term impacts of this demise process on the atmosphere are currently unknown. This paper presents a method for determining the high-altitude atmospheric injection of anthropogenic objects that reenter from Earth’s orbit and estimating the chemical species generated during reentry. Empirical reentry data is used to analyze annual trends, showing a record-breaking launch and reentry mass in 2024 of over 2200 tonnes and 490 tonnes, respectively. The accumulation of chemical compounds of anthropogenic origin in the mesosphere is compared against natural levels. We find that the amount of aluminum that reentered the atmosphere originated from satellites and upper stages of launch vehicles surpassed, for the first time in 2024, that of meteoroids. We show that the methodology presented can be applied to estimate the atmospheric burden of individual chemical species originated during reentry.

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确定空间碎片在大气层中消亡时的质量通量

围绕地球运行的人为物体的数量预计将显著增加，因为正在进行的小型卫星大星座计划。由于大多数空间碎片在重返大气层时燃烧殆尽，这一消亡过程对大气的长期影响目前尚不清楚。本文提出了一种确定从地球轨道再入的人造物体高空大气注入量和估算再入过程中产生的化学物质的方法。用于分析年度趋势的经验再入数据显示，2024年的发射和再入质量分别超过2200吨和490吨，打破了纪录。将中间层中人为来源的化合物的积累与自然水平进行比较。我们发现，从卫星和运载火箭的上层重新进入大气层的铝的数量在2024年首次超过了流星体的数量。我们表明，所提出的方法可以应用于估算在再入过程中产生的单个化学物质的大气负担。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Acta Astronautica 工程技术-工程：宇航

CiteScore

7.20

自引率

22.90%

发文量

599

审稿时长

53 days

期刊介绍： Acta Astronautica is sponsored by the International Academy of Astronautics. Content is based on original contributions in all fields of basic, engineering, life and social space sciences and of space technology related to: The peaceful scientific exploration of space, Its exploitation for human welfare and progress, Conception, design, development and operation of space-borne and Earth-based systems, In addition to regular issues, the journal publishes selected proceedings of the annual International Astronautical Congress (IAC), transactions of the IAA and special issues on topics of current interest, such as microgravity, space station technology, geostationary orbits, and space economics. Other subject areas include satellite technology, space transportation and communications, space energy, power and propulsion, astrodynamics, extraterrestrial intelligence and Earth observations.