Subject: Cislunar Artifact WT1190F
From: Daniel Adamo <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2015 22:35:48 -0700

ATIG Members-

Attached are some trajectory plots and predictions I've made for WT1190F,
currently thought to be debris from an unidentified lunar mission.  News
reports are concentrating on its predicted entry Friday, 13 November 2015 at
06:20 UT.  The acronym formed by alphabetic components of "WT1190F" is also
attracting humorous remarks.

But I'm thinking WT1190F's lasting legacy is to human space flight
architects and mission planners working on visits to NASA's "Proving Ground"
in cislunar space.  We need to minimize abandoned artifacts and debris sent
through the Proving Ground because a hypervelocity hit to spacecraft or
habitats days from Earth return is potentially more hazardous to crew
survival than are hits aboard ISS.  What debris we do send into cislunar
space needs to be catalogued and tracked as diligently as are those ISS
threats.  And what we cannot reliably track due to its small size and great
distance must be shielded against with added spacecraft/habitat mass.
Comments on the attachment and these remarks are welcome.

-Dan