Guillaume Loonis Quélen took part in the 2nd International Orbital Debris Conference (IOC) in Sugar Land, Texas, from 4 to 7 December 2023.
The second International Orbital Debris Conference (IOC II) was held from December 4 to 7, 2023, in Sugar Land, Texas, bringing together approximately 250 participants from 14 countries, including representatives from space agencies such as NASA, ESA, ISRO, JAXA, and CNES. The main objective of this conference was to promote research on orbital debris and strengthen international collaboration in this field.
Discussions covered four main areas: measurements (radar, optical, in situ, laboratory), modeling (engineering, long-term environment, short-term risk assessments, atmospheric reentry), operations and mission support (hypervelocity impacts and protection, satellite anomalies, conjunction assessments), and space environment management (mitigation, remediation, space traffic coordination, policies).
More than 120 technical papers were presented, addressing topics such as risks posed by small untracked debris, ESA’s activities in space safety, ISRO’s initiatives on space situational awareness, and future perspectives on the orbital debris issue.
Among the highlights, NASA shared recent data from the Goldstone radar, capable of detecting debris about 2 mm in size, and provided updates on post-flight inspections of SpaceX’s Dragon vehicles. Additionally, the ISS performed an avoidance maneuver on November 10, 2023, to dodge debris from an SL-16 rocket stage, marking the 38th such maneuver since 1999.