Nebula Public Library

At present, the largest part of the catalogued space debris population consists of fragments originating from accidental explosions of spacecraft and upper stages, but it is expected that hypervelocity collisions involving large objects could become the primary source of new debris in the mid-term future. In this context, understanding the physical processes involved in spacecraft collisions is crucial, because these big impacts are one of the key drivers of the long-term evolution of the amount of space debris.