SSA: Orbital Debris, Space Weather & Planetary Defense provides a complete blueprint for understanding and managing space situational awareness (SSA). Actionable tools, models, and code are enhanced by policy discussions to provide a unified SSA framework addressing the technical, strategic, and legal realities shaping space security and planetary defense.
The fundamentals of SSA are presented and help define the history and core components, including space debris, orbiting objects and space weather. Early chapters explore how SSA data is acquired and interpreted. Dive deep into the types, causes, and risks of orbital debris with practical classifications, data-driven models, and quick-reference summaries.
Explore the mechanics of orbiting bodies with deep coverage of orbital parameters, satellite collisions, LEO decay, and atmospheric reentry. Gain hands-on tools for modeling reentry probabilities, analyzing radioactive risks, and understanding debris dynamics like the Kessler Syndrome. Detailed technical sections provide formulas, graphs, and runnable code to simulate debris propagation, locate geostationary satellites, and interpret their optical behavior. The final section expands the scope, tackling electromagnetic interference, solar activity, and nuclear-generated space weather, offering both quick rules and in-depth models for forecasting their effects.
Critical perspectives on planetary defense, international space law, and the growing role of SSA in global security support compliance efforts and ensure policy makers stay legally and strategically informed. From engineering threats to legal and military realities, this book gives Satellite and aerospace engineers, Mission planners, space security professionals and legal professionals in the space domain a complete toolkit for managing the full technical, operational, and strategic spectrum of SSA.
About the author:
John A. Kennewell is an Australian space physicist and researcher specializing in Space Situational Awareness (SSA), space weather, and observational astronomy.
Dr. Kennewell is the director of the Australian Space Academy, and an adjunct staff member at Curtin University and the University of Western Australia (UWA).
His research interests include space surveillance and tracking (SST), space weather (SWE), near-Earth object (NEO) monitoring, optical and radio astronomy, and data fusion and visualization for SSA systems. Dr. Kennewell has collaborated on international projects involving asteroid tracking and transient astronomical events, and has contributed to the development of SSA frameworks that integrate both natural and artificial space object monitoring.