Space Debris Tracking CubeSat; Analysis of the Environmental and Socio-Political Parallels Between Orbital and Marine Debris

Due to a rapid increase in human influence in space, there has been a clear uptick in the amount of space debris accumulated over this recent period. This congestion in orbit increases the likelihood that active spacecraft will collide with such debris leading to failures of satellite systems and other infrastructure. Currently, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) keeps track of any debris that is over ten centimeters, leaving the approximately 120 million smaller pieces untraced. The technical portion of this thesis details a potential solution to this problem by demonstrating the function of a continuous-wave radar system built into a CubeSat that has the ability to track debris under this ten-centimeter threshold. The sociotechnical analysis portion of this thesis compares the growth and accumulation of orbital debris to that of marine debris, outlining their similar patterns and how these patterns influence human and technological behaviors.