THE DISTRIBUTION OF DEBRIS IMPACTS OVER SATELLITE SURFACES WITH SPECIAL REGARD TO THE LONG-DURATION EXPOSURE FACILITY LDEF

Examination of surfaces recovered from space indicates a high flux of small particles of natural as well as of manmade origins. In this pape r, a model of small orbital debris particles is presented, and impact distributions resulting from this model are derived and discussed. In order to understand the observed impacts on LDEF, general relationship s between particle orbits and crater distributions over the LDEF surfa ces are analysed. After comparison of modeling results with observatio nal data, a modification of the debris model is proposed which fits th e measurement favorably.