“The knowledge I’ve gained through my research at AFIT has been very helpful in my current role in the Air Force, especially in terms of my understanding of spacecraft trajectories, the perturbations that influence the motion of spacecraft and the dynamics of the Earth-moon system,” said Boone, a Master of Science student at AFIT.
“I would enthusiastically recommend AFIT to other civilian students. The professors are very knowledgeable and have helped me a lot. I enjoy the small class sizes at AFIT and how willing professors are to help.”
Boone’s “Cislunar Debris Propagation Following a Catastrophic Spacecraft Mishap” was one of four papers presented in the survivability category of the AIAA SciTech 2021 virtual conference. His research seeks to provide the first insights into possible risks from debris in cislunar space to other cislunar spacecraft as well as to spacecraft in near-Earth space.
As spacecraft operations increase in cislunar space, or the region extending from high Earth orbit to the Moon, the risk increases that a spacecraft will suffer a catastrophic mishap generating a significant amount of debris. Although many similar events have transpired in orbits closer to Earth and debris near it has been heavily studied, very few studies have examined debris risks beyond the near-Earth orbital environment.
The results of Boone’s research discovered the risk of debris in cislunar space was small but varied, depending on the mishap. Simulations of various cislunar debris case studies found a significant amount of debris particles in lower-orbital altitudes during a transfer mishap to the moon, as well as the Apollo 13 explosion.
The debris particles from these mishaps were found in lower altitudes that currently contained operational spacecraft. If a similar event happened today, the crowded orbital environment close to Earth could be threatened.
As a part-time civilian master’s student, Boone presented his research at three space-affiliated technical conferences in 2020 and early 2021. He graduated from AFIT in March, and his research will now be presented at various space-affiliated, globally attended conferences the rest of the year.
“In the future, I plan to extend the models I’ve developed in this research to study a catastrophic mishap in lunar orbit,” he said. “Debris in lunar orbit has been largely unstudied and could possibly become an issue if the lunar environment becomes more crowded in the future.”
Each year, the Center for Space Research and Assurance’s faculty and astronautical engineering and space systems graduate students attend and present both virtually and in-person at an average of one conference per month. These space-affiliated conferences are nationally and globally attended and assist students and faculty with opportunities to gain additional expertise and knowledge for developing research solutions benefiting Defense Department-affiliated topics and collaborations.
“Technical conferences provide our graduate students an amazing opportunity to participate in the wider engineering community,” said Maj. Robert Bettinger, CSRA deputy director. “This award demonstrates the ability of AFIT students to deliver timely, relevant and cutting-edge research, despite complications imposed by the COVID virtual environment.”
The Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson AFB is the Air Force’s graduate school of engineering and strives to be the first choice for advanced academic education and career-long professional continuing education.
For more information about graduate or post-doctorate degrees in astronautical engineering or space systems, visit the CSRA website at www.afit.edu/CSRA/ or call 937-255-6565, ext. 4753.
The image above is a simulation of spacecraft debris on a trajectory similar to the Apollo 13 mission when it suffered an explosion on the way to the moon in April 1970. This data shows what may have happened to the debris following the Apollo 13 incident. Debris intersects much lower Earth orbital altitudes and geostationary equatorial orbit. (U.S. Air Force contributed image)
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