NASA
scientists continue to develop and upgrade orbital debris models to describe and characterize the current and future debris environment. Engineering models, such as
ORDEM2000,
can
be used for debris impact risk assessments for spacecraft and satellites, including the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle. Evolutionary models, such
as EVOLVE and LEGEND,
are designed to predict the future debris environment. They are reliable tools to study how the future debris environment reacts to various
mitigation practices.
