Abstract
Means and standard deviations of area-to-mass ratios for orbital debris tracked by US Space Command were calculated from observed changes in apogee and perigee altitude due to atmospheric drag and harmonic coefficient perturbations. Historical radar cross sections (RCSs) were analyzed to determine their means and standard deviations. A laboratory-derived statistical estimator of characteristic size is discussed and applied to the RCS statistics to yield characteristic sizes of orbital debris. These area-to-mass ratios and characteristic sizes were combined to produce statistical estimates of object mass. These are categorized by fragmentation progenitor, such as the Delta second stage rockets, and debris cloud membership. Distributions in area-to-mass and estimated size and mass are examined for structure and compared to current models.
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