Overview of the Inter Agency Debris Committee protection manual

Man's enthusiasm for exploring space has resulted in the launch of many payloads over the years, leading to the creation of a man-made orbital blanket of debris around the Earth in addition to the meteoroid hazard. Risk analysis studies have indicated space debris or meteoroids impact damages can have a wide range of effects on spacecraft. The primary objective of the Protection Manual (PM) is to capture results of interchange and cooperative activities among members of the Protection Working Group of the Interagency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC). The PM provides the framework that allows comparable meteoroid/orbital debris (M/OD) risk assessments between member agencies. In particular, the PM provides a standard methodology for meteoroid/debris risk assessments, a mean to cross-calibrate risk assessment tools, documentation of reliable ballistic limit equations, procedures and results used to calibrate member hypervelocity impact test facilities, and description of validation activities for hypervelocity impact simulation codes.