The small orbital debris population and its impact on space activities and ecological safety

When it is said about the danger of orbital debris for space activities and the ecology of the Earth, it most often means large orbital debris. In contrast to large orbital debris, the influence of small ones to space activities and ecology of the Earth and near-Earth space is often underestimated. As will be shown in this paper, it is unfair. New data on the dynamics of contamination of near-Earth space with small debris in low Earth orbit were...