NOTE: The date of this event has been changed to Saturday October 24th. 

Explorers Club Members, Associates/Friends, Members’ Guests and Non-Members’ Guest List You are cordially invited to the October 2020 ECWG virtual via Zoom.

About the Presentation

Since the dawn of the space age, mankind has continued to launch more and more objects into space. Many of those objects have remained in space, past their functional lifetime, and constitute a population of many tens of thousands of defunct objects (dead satellite, pieces of satellites, rocket bodies, etc.) that we refer to as “space debris” or “orbital debris”. Existing space debris (and the increase in the population of space debris) constitutes a threat to our continued use of space, both to satellites and astronauts. In this talk for non-experts, we describe what space debris is, the threats it causes, how we monitor it, and potential mechanisms to mitigate threats associated with space debris. Also discussed will be current activities in Space Traffic Management.

About our speaker

Dr. Mark Skinner joined The Aerospace Corporation in 2017 as a Senior Project Leader for Space Traffic Management, in Crystal City, VA, in support of the development of civil and commercial space traffic management. Prior to joining The Aerospace Corporation, Skinner was with the Boeing Company, heading up the commercial space situational awareness group, conducting research into observational and analysis techniques to advance the state of the art in space surveillance, and in developing infrared sensing and characterization techniques of resident space objects.

Skinner is internationally recognized as a researcher in space object characterization and commercial space situational awareness and specializes in the techniques of non-resolved object characterization (NROC) and non-imaging space object identification (NISOI) and has extended this research into both the infrared and time domain arenas. His current research focus is on solving pressing problems related to STM, including the tracking and identification of small objects. For eight years, he supported the US delegation to the UN COPUOS Working Group on the Long-Term Sustainable use of outer space in the successful development of guidelines and best practices, as an expert on space debris and space situational awareness.

How to Attend

This presentation will be given on the Zoom platform. Access will be mailed to all members. For help using Zoom please see this post: 

Zoom Meeting Instructions