The number of objects orbiting Earth is increasing and will continue to do so in the
future. With the increasing amount of these objects, collisions become more probable. These
collisions produce space debris orbiting Earth without an opportunity to manipulate its
trajectories.
For this thesis a software solution to model the trajectories of such objects, was developed,
using C++. This software solution uses numerical integration, namely the leapfrog integration
method, to solve a system of differential equations. These differential equations model the
two-body problem of the orbiting object and the Earth and uses Cowell’s formulation to
add perturbations to the two-body equations. The modeled perturbations are caused by the
gravitation of the Sun and the Moon, the aspherical gravitational potential of the Earth,
solar radiation pressure, and atmospheric drag.
The software solution is planned to be used as a part of larger space debris simulations
systems, developed and used by the European Space Agency’s Advanced Concept Team.