MEO Presents Papers to International Community

MEO Presents Papers to International Community

5-minute read
Orbital Debris and Meteoroid Depiction

Earlier this year, the Meteoroid Environment Office (MEO) presented three papers at the 7th European Conference on Space Debris in Germany, sharing findings and updates related to comparison studies on the damage caused by meteoroids versus Orbital Debris (OD), meteor shower forecasting and NASA’s Meteoroid Engineering Model (MEM).

Bill Cooke, MEO lead; Althea Moorhead, aerospace technologist for planetary studies; and Steven Ehlert, astronomer with Jacobs ESSSA Group (all located at Marshall Space Flight Center) presented “A Comparison of Damaging Meteoroid and Orbital Debris Fluxes in Earth Orbit,” “Meteor Shower Forecasting for Spacecraft Operations,” and “A Comparison of Results From NASA’s Meteoroid Engineering Model to the LDEF Cratering Record,” respectively.

“OD has been universally acknowledged as a problem, and because it can be mitigated that’s the focus [of the conference],” explained Cooke.

“Overwhelmingly people were talking about Orbital Debris, so it was important that we were there to remind them about the risk from meteoroids as well,” added Moorhead.

Even though the conference is OD-focused, it’s still geared towards spacecraft operators and engineers who design and operate the spacecraft affected by MEO’s work.

“It’s really important we share our results and share the overall spacecraft risk with that community,” said Ehlert.

“A Comparison of Damaging Meteoroid and Orbital Debris Fluxes in Earth Orbit”

For MEO’s study captured in “A Comparison of Damaging Meteoroid and Orbital Debris Fluxes in Earth Orbit,” the team worked with members of the Orbital Debris Program Office to look at the number of meteoroids capable of damaging spacecraft and compared it to the amount of OD capable of damaging spacecraft at different altitudes in Earth orbit.

The study, which was the first-ever OD and meteoroid comparison as a function of altitude, found that for altitudes below the International Space Station and above 4,000 kilometers, meteoroid damage is the greater risk to spacecraft, while the altitude from between the space station to that 4,000-kilometer mark has a higher risk of OD damage. (The space station itself shows roughly equal impacts from meteoroids and OD.)

That being said, there are certain sun synchronous altitudes from 800 to 1,000 kilometers where NASA and other government and industry organizations frequently place spacecraft, and in that zone the debris caused by man-made crafts is by far the biggest threat. In this zone, OD sometimes generates 500 times the risk that meteoroids do.

“Certain altitudes in Earth orbit we trash very effectively,” explained Cooke, referencing the heavily cluttered zone. “Unfortunately, it’s a very popular space.”

A few examples of spacecraft at this altitude include commercial imagers, A-Train and NASA’s Iridium NEXT satellites. 

“It’s a very popular place to put satellites, in part because you can maintain the same sun angle and resulting shadows,” explained Cooke. “[But] when the risk from what you put up there is over 500 times what the natural environment is, you have a problem.”

Whether or not an organization plans to put a spacecraft in this high-risk zone or at another altitude, it’s important that designers understand the risks posed by both meteoroids and OD so they can take proper precautions to protect the spacecraft. Meteoroids move faster than OD, so smaller pieces can cause damage.

“A meteoroid can be much smaller and still inflict the same amount of damage,” said Cooke.

In fact, the effect of being hit by a 1-centimeter meteoroid can be equivalent to getting hit by a truck, resulting in catastrophic damage.

Despite the damage meteoroids can do, there’s also nothing that can be done to reduce their quantity, so designers must always take this into account and put protection in place for vulnerable spacecraft. Cooke acknowledges that unlike meteoroids, there is something that can be done to reduce OD, or at least prevent a further increase of it, which is why the conference focuses primarily on space junk.

“Meteor Shower Forecasting for Spacecraft Operations”

This paper, presented by Moorhead, highlights NASA’s forecasting methods and presents improvements in the forecasts based on flux measurements from the Canadian Meteor Orbit Radar. The paper also discusses the application of the meteor shower forecast to risk assessments for spacecraft.

Although MEO has produced meteor forecasts for years, this paper is the office’s first publication that goes over how NASA does forecasting, and the conference was a unique opportunity to present meteor shower forecasting to a pre-dominantly engineering based community.

“Besides just explaining it [forecasting], we also talked about some recent improvements we made,” explained Moorhead. “We took a look at the code and made some improvements there and we improved the descriptions of the meteor showers that we input into the forecasting code.”

The goal is to understand the flux of meteoroids occurring during the shower as well as the duration of elevated risk during the shower. According to Moorhead, normally there is a rise and fall to each shower, but some peaks and dips last longer than others. A paper from 1993 was the last time activity profiles of meteor showers were quantified. With this recent re-evaluation, MEO found that in many cases current predictions based on the newer data has resulted in big improvements in the forecast accuracy. Using new data, MEO made significant changes in the timing of some meteor showers, particularly for daytime showers. As a result of the study, new shower parameters were determined and incorporated into the 2017 forecast.

“A Comparison of Results From NASA’s Meteoroid Engineering Model to the LDEF Cratering Record”

Ehlert’s paper, “A Comparison of Results From NASA’s Meteoroid Engineering Model to the LDEF Cratering Record,” covers MEO’s investigation of impact craters on an old spacecraft: the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF).

Impacts on LDEF are indicative of underlying velocity distribution and directionality of the OD and meteoroid environment. LDEF, a school-bus sized facility that hosted science experiments, was in Low-Earth Orbit from April 1984 to January 1990, when space Shuttle Columbia retrieved it so that NASA could observe how the space environment affected the experiments inside. MEO compared the data on the observed impact craters to predictions made by NASA's MEM Release 2 meteoroid environment model over LDEF’s operational lifetime.

“It’s an actual in-space detector,” explained Ehlert.

MEO started by determining how many impacts it expected to see on LDEF based on the existing model and then compared that to reality. According to Ehlert, the model predictions were a pretty good match for those surfaces on which meteoroids were expected to dominate over OD. The biggest surprise to Ehlert was that despite LDEF being in space during the 80s and 90s (when fewer spacecraft were in orbit), there were a lot of OD hits. This information will help MEO understand how well the current version of MEM is working and improve future models.

The 8th European Conference on Space Debris will be in 2021 in Germany. 

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William Cooke

William Cooke

Meteoroid Environment Program Manager

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Meteoroid Engineering Model PoC

Dr. Althea Moorhead

Dr. Althea Moorhead is a member of the Meteoroid Environment Office and leads the office’s efforts in improving and updating NASA's Meteoroid Engineering Model (MEM). As the MEM Point of Contact, she provides user support and assists spacecraft programs in applying MEM to their designs, as well as directing ongoing development of the software and its underlying meteoroid environment model. In addition to her work on MEM, Moorhead also conducts investigations of meteor showers, such as the 2014 Kappa Cygnid outburst. She also models unique meteoroid environments such as that produced by comet Siding Spring during its Mars flyby.

Moorhead has a Bachelor of Science degree in physics and mathematics from the University of Arizona and a Doctorate of Philosophy in physics from the University of Michigan. Before joining NASA, she worked at the University of Florida as a postdoctoral researcher studying the dynamics of extrasolar planetary systems. She is a member of the American Astronomical Society.

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Policy and Guidance

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NASA Meteoroid Engineering Model (MEM) Version 3 

The Meteoroid Engineering Model (MEM) version 3 is NASA’s most current and accurate model of the meteoroid environment. MEM 3 supersedes all previous versions of MEM, including MEM Release 2.0 (MEMR2), MEM Release 1.0c (MEMR1c), and previously internally controlled and released versions of MEMCxP v2.0 and LunarMEM v2.0. 

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Publications

Title Publication Authors  
The flux of kilogram-sized meteoroids from lunar impact monitoring Icarus. 238, 23-36, 2014 Suggs, R. M., Moser, D. E., Cooke, W. J., Suggs, R. J. See Paper
Dust production of comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner using broadband photometry Meteoritics & Planetary Science: Online Early, 2013 Blaauw, R. C., Suggs, R. M., and Cooke, W. J. See Paper
Meteorites from meteor showers: A case study of the Taurids. Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 48:2, 270-288, 2013 Brown, P., Marchenko, V., Moser, D. E., Weryk, R., and Cooke, W. See Paper
The 2012 Lyrids from non-traditional observing platforms Proceedings of the 2012 IMC, 146-149, 2013 Moser, D. E., Suggs, R. M., Cooke, W. J., and Blaauw, R. See Paper
The present-day flux of large meteoroids on the lunar surface—A synthesis of models and observational techniques Planet. and Space Science. 74:1, 179, 2012 Oberst, J., Christou, A., Suggs, R., Moser, D., Daubar, I. J., McEwen, A. S., Burchell, M., Kawamura, T., Hiesinger, H., Wünnemann, K., Wagner, R., and Robinson, M. S. See Paper
The status of the NASA All Sky Fireball Network Proceedings of the 2011 IMC, 9-12, 2012 Cooke, W. J. and Moser, D. E. See Paper
Results from the NMSU-NASA Marshall Space Flight Center LCROSS observational campaign J. Geophysical Research 116:E8, 2011 Chanover, N. J., Miller, C., Hamilton, R. T., Suggs, R. M., and McMillan, R. See Paper
Flux of Kilogram-sized Meteoroids from Lunar Impact Monitoring Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, vol. 40, pp. 455, 2008 Suggs, R. M., Cooke, W., Suggs, R., McNamara, H., Swift, W., Moser, D., and Diekmann, A See Paper
Updates to the MSFC Meteoroid Stream Model Earth, Moon, and Planets, vol. 102, pp. 285-291, 2008 Moser, D. E. and Cooke, W. J. See Paper
Measurement of the meteoroid flux at Mars Icarus, vol. 191, no. 1, pp. 141-150, 2007 Domokos, A., Bell, J. F., Brown, P., Lemmon, M. T., Suggs, R., Vaubaillon, J., and Cooke, W. See Paper
Model predictions for the 2001 Leonids and implications for Earth-orbiting satellites Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 326, pp. L19-L22, 2001 Brown, P. and Cooke, B. See Paper
A 500-kiloton airburst over Chelyabinsk and an enhanced hazard from small impactors Nature 503:7475, 238-241, 2013 Brown, P. G., Assink, J. D., Astiz, L., Blaauw, R.; Boslough, M. B., Borovička, J., Brachet, N., Brown, D., Campbell-Brown, M., Ceranna, L., and 23 coauthors See Paper
Meteoroid Engineering Model (MEM): A Meteoroid Model for the Inner Solar System Earth, Moon, and Planets, vol. 95, pp. 123-139, 2004 McNamara, H., Jones, J., Kauffman, B., Suggs, R., Cooke, W., and Smith, S. See Paper
MSFC Stream Model Preliminary Results: Modeling Recent Leonid and Perseid Encounters Earth, Moon, and Planets, vol. 95, pp. 141-153, 2004 Moser, D. E. and Cooke, W. J. See Paper
Meteor44 Video Meteor Photometry Earth, Moon, and Planets, vol. 95, pp. 533-540, 2004 Swift, W. R., Suggs, R. M., and Cooke, W. J. See Paper
Determining Bolide Luminous Efficiency Through Optical Observations of the Genesis Atmospheric Entry Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, vol. 37, pp. 650, 2005 Cooke, W. J., Swift, W. M., and Suggs, R. M. See Paper
A Search for Meteor Shower Signatures in the LDEF IDE Data Proceedings of the Dust in Planetary Systems Conference, pp. 35, 2005 Cooke, W. J. and McNamara, H. A. See Paper
Genesis Reentry Observations and Data Analysis NASA TM 2005-214192, November 2005 Swift, W. R. and Suggs, R. M. See Paper
A Probable Taurid Impact on the Moon 37th Annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, abstract no. 1731, 2006 Cooke, W. J., Suggs, R. M., and Swift, W. R. See Paper
The meteoroid fluence at Mars due to Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring). Icarus 231, 13-21, 2014 Moorhead, A. V., Wiegert, P. A., Cooke, W. J. See Paper
A meteor cluster detection algorithm WGN, Journal of the International Meteor Organization 41:1,14-19, 2014 Burt, J. B., Moorhead, A. V., Cooke, W. J. See Paper
Outburst and Dust Production of Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 The Astronomical Journal, 145:5, 122, 2013 Hosek, M. W. Jr., Blaauw, R. C., Cooke, W. J., and Suggs, R. M. See Paper
Comparison of ASGARD and UFOCapture Proceedings of the 2011 IMC, 44-46, 2012 Blaauw, R. and Cruse, K. S. See Paper
Luminous Efficiency of Hypervelocity Meteoroid Impacts on the Moon Derived From the 2006 Geminids, 2007 Lyrids and 2008 Taurids Proceedings of the Meteoroids 2010 Conference, NASA/CP-2011-216469, 142, 2011 Moser, D. E., Suggs, R. M., Swift, W. R., Suggs, R. J., Cooke, W. J., Diekmann, A. M., and Koehler, H. M. See Paper
An Exponential Luminous Efficiency Model for Hypervelocity Impact into Regolith Proceedings of the Meteoroids 2010 Conference, NASA/CP-2011-216469, 125, 2011 Swift, W. R., Moser, D. E., Suggs, R. M., and Cooke, W. J. See Paper
Lunar Meteoroid Impact Observations and the Flux of Kilogram-sized Meteoroids Proceedings of the Meteoroids 2010 Conference, NASA/CP-2011-216469, 116, 2011 Suggs, R. M., Cooke, W. J., Koehler, H. M., Suggs, R. J., Moser, D. E., and Swift, W. R. See Paper
Meteoroids: The Smallest Solar System Bodies Proceedings of the Meteoroids 2010 Conference, NASA/CP-2011-216469, 2011 Cooke, W. J., Moser, D. E., Hardin, B . F., and Janches, D. See Paper
Rate and Distribution of Kilogram Lunar Impactors 38th Annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, abstract no. 1986, 2007 Cooke, W. J., Suggs, R. M., Suggs, R. J., Swift, W. R., and Hollon, N. P. See Paper
The NASA Lunar Impact Monitoring Program Earth, Moon, and Planets, vol. 102, pp. 293-298, 2008 Suggs, R. M., Cooke, W. J., Suggs, R. J., Swift, W. R., and Hollon, N. See Paper
Algorithms for Lunar Flash Video Search, Measurement, and Archiving Earth, Moon, and Planets, vol. 102, pp. 299-303, 2008 Swift, W., Suggs, R., and Cooke, B. See Paper
Measurement of Ejecta from Normal Incident Hypervelocity Impact on Lunar Regolith Simulant Earth, Moon, and Planets, vol. 102, pp. 549-553, 2008 Edwards, D. L., Cooke, W., Moser, D. E., and Swift, W. See Paper
Meteoroid Environment Workshop and Call for Lunar Impact Observations WGN, Journal of the IMO, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 83-86, 2008 Arlt, R. and Moser, D. See Paper

Models

Sporadic Meteoroid Environment

In an attempt to overcome some of the deficiencies of past models, a Meteoroid Environment Model (MEM R2) was developed by the Meteoroid Environment Office (MEO). Some of the revolutionary aspects of MEM are

  • Identification of the sporadic radiants with real sources of meteoroids, such as comets
  • A physics-based approach that yields accurate fluxes and directionality for interplanetary spacecraft anywhere in the inner solar system
  • Velocity distributions obtained from theory and validated against observation.

Meteor Showers

MEO generates annual meteor shower forecasts suitable for all spacecraft in low-Earth orbit. Custom forecasts focusing on a specific shower for spacecraft in other locations are available by request.

View MEM Website 

Measurements

Measurements of meteoroid fluxes, speeds and densities form the basis of sporadic meteoroid models and are vital in calibrating meteor shower forecasts. Because meteoroids move much faster than orbital debris and essentially have no radar cross-section, they must be understood in terms of the light or ionization they produce as meteors when ablating in Earth’s atmosphere (a meteoroid the size of a dime can produce an ionization trail the length of a aircraft carrier!).

NASA's All Sky Fireball Network

The NASA All Sky Fireball Network is a network of cameras, hosted by science centers, schools and observatories, designed to observe meteors known as fireballs — meteors brighter than Venus. Observations are posted on the All Sky Fireball Network website every morning. The Meteoroid Environment Office uses the data to construct models of the meteoroid environment, which are important to spacecraft designers.

Lunar Impact Modeling

NASA uses small telescopes to monitor the moon for flashes produced when meteoroids strike the surface, creating small craters. This helps establish how often larger meteoroids (bigger than a golf ball) strike the moon.

View Fireball Network Website View Lunar Impact Monitoring Website