"The Numbers Game," by Brian Weeden

Brian Weeden, SWF Technical Advisor, has written an article on satellite catalogs for The Space Review.

"Whenever the topic of space debris and satellites in orbit comes up a lot of numbers tend to get thrown around by a lot of different people, and it can be hard to keep all the figures straight. Compounding this is the superficial knowledge (at best) of the subject by many media commentators and the tradition of secrecy by the US military, the organization that has historically been the main keepers of the data on space debris.

This article attempts to shed some light on this subject and will define in detail exactly what stuff is in orbit, how we know what’s up there, and what a satellite catalog is, as well as highlight a few areas of concern with this entire process. In addition, it will make some suggestions for improving the situation in the near future. This is especially important because, as I learned from G.I. Joe growing up, “knowing is half the battle” and right now the world knows a lot less than half of what it should about the space environment."

Read the full article here.