Studying the MEO&GEO space debris environments with the Integrated Debris Evolution Suite (IDES) model

The Integrated Debris Evolution Suite (IDES) has been upgraded to facilitate the modelling of the current and future space debris environments throughout Earth orbit. This paper will highlight the principal features of the model that were upgraded to allow the simulation of the environment from low Earth orbit altitudes up to the geosynchronous region. It will then give a summary of the full capabilities of IDES 3.0. Having described the upgrade, some initial results for an historical evolution of the space debris environment in Earth orbit will be presented.