| abstract: |
Since Sputnik, the world’s first successful satellite, was launched in 1957, humans have launched many satellites and rockets; thus the number of artificial objects in orbit has been increasing. Explosions and collisions of these objects create large volumes of space debris. For the safety of people and satellites, this debris problem must be solved. Currently, number of space objects larger than 1mm in size is about 1.5-hundred million and only 15-thousand objects are cataloged. JAXA is carrying out research and development on the fields of observation, modeling, protection and mitigation of space debris to cope with the situation. In this presentation, current status of space debris and the activities of JAXA especially on the observation field will be introduced.
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