Recommendable!
"... there are nearly 30,000 pieces—and that number only includes the pieces that are trackable. As space debris accumulates, it poses a growing challenge to space travel and exploration. ...
Formally known as orbital debris, space junk can be bits and pieces of inactive satellites, the rockets that carry them into space, debris from missiles, and detritus left behind by astronauts. Space debris can be as large as a school bus (like the inactive Envisat satellite, launched in 2002) or as small as paint chips. (As we’ll see, just because a piece of space junk is tiny doesn’t mean it’s harmless.) ...
Formally known as orbital debris, space junk can be bits and pieces of inactive satellites, the rockets that carry them into space, debris from missiles, and detritus left behind by astronauts. Space debris can be as large as a school bus (like the inactive Envisat satellite, launched in 2002) or as small as paint chips. (As we’ll see, just because a piece of space junk is tiny doesn’t mean it’s harmless.) ...
Debris is accumulating in space at an alarming rate. Since space exploration began [about 1957-1961], more than 15,000 satellites have been launched. Now rocket launches take place more than three times per week, many deploying multiple satellites. And every new launch has the potential to generate more junk. In the year 2000, there were around 8,000 trackable pieces of debris in space. By 2019, there were roughly 20,000. Now, just four years later, there are nearly 30,000 pieces of junk larger than a softball floating in space. ...
Space junk can be dangerous because anything orbiting Earth is moving fast: debris in space travels at roughly 10 kilometers per second. That’s about 300 times faster than the maximum speed on most US highways. And since both objects in a collision would be moving fast, the relative speed would be even higher. A collision with a large object going that fast is obviously dangerous, but even junk as tiny as a paint fleck can be a problem.
Here are some examples of the damage space junk can do:
A ten-centimeter object—the size of a large bagel—could break an average satellite into pieces upon impact. There are roughly 30,000 similarly sized objects in space (including space junk and naturally occurring debris from comets or asteroids).
A one-centimeter object—the size of a Cheerio—could puncture the protective shields covering the International Space Station (ISS). In space, there are approximately 670,000 objects larger than a Cheerio.
A one-millimeter object—the size of a pencil point—could destroy a spacecraft’s ability to power up or to reach a certain altitude upon impact. There are 170 million objects larger than that in space. ..."
No comments:
Post a Comment