Space systems survivability-the protection environment

The US military, civilian agencies, and commercial sectors of our economy are becoming increasingly dependent on space systems and their unique capabilities. The aspects of space systems which lend themselves to a concept of Global Virtual Presence also create requirements and technological challenges for protecting the space assets and assuring their operation in the presence of the natural and man-made space environments which can potentially degrade system performance or cause lifetime-limiting damage. This paper will discuss the “protection environment”, the process and methods used for determining protection needs, and the framework employed to identify potential protection solutions. The emphasis will be on the orbital segments of space systems. Protection needs for military spacecraft can include the additional burden of hostile threats designed to deliberately degrade, damage, or otherwise limit the military effectiveness of the system. Hence, additional protection options and approaches beyond those employed for civil/commercial spacecraft are required