Orbital debris is a mounting concern for all space-faring nations. Estimates indicate that small debris (up to10 cm in diameter) make up the majority of existing orbital debris, with an approximate 500,000 occurrences in lowearth orbit (LEO). Additionally, this small debris is currently impossible to track from Earth. Because of this, therisk of impact posed by small debris for spacecraft in LEO is particularly high. If small debris could be cataloguedand tracked, the danger of impact for future LEO missions could be diminished and the possibility of eventualremoval of the debris could be improved. Undergraduate engineering students from the University of Alabama inHuntsville (UAHuntsville) Integrated Product Team (IPT) worked alongside members of the NASA Small OrbitalDebris Detection, Acquisition and Tracking (SODDAT) team to investigate solutions for the design of a spacecraftthat will track and catalog small debris in LEO. The UAHuntsville IPT students researched and compared optionsfor a payload capable of detecting and tracking the debris, along with options for the spacecraft platform. Thepresent paper describes the UAHuntsville IPT's methods of research, the results of the UAHuntsville IPT studies andthe recommendations for the design of the spacecraft.
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