Space Waste:Debris
More than 500,000 pieces of debris, or “space junk,” are tracked as they orbit the Earth. They all travel at speeds up to 17,500 mph, fast enough for a relatively small piece of orbital debris to damage a satellite or a spacecraft.
The rising population of space debris increases the potential danger to all space vehicles, but especially to the International Space Station, space shuttles and other spacecraft with humans aboard.
Orbital debris is any man-made object in orbit about the Earth which no longer serves a useful function. Such debris includes nonfunctional spacecraft, abandoned launch vehicle stages, mission-related debris and fragmentation debris.
There are more than 20,000 pieces of debris larger than a softball orbiting the Earth. They travel at speeds up to 17,500 mph, fast enough for a relatively small piece of orbital debris to damage a satellite or a spacecraft. There are 500,000 pieces of debris the size of a marble or larger. There are many millions of pieces of debris that are so small they can’t be tracked.
“The greatest risk to space missions comes from non-trackable debris,” said Nicholas Johnson, NASA chief scientist for orbital debris.
In 1996, a French satellite was hit and damaged by debris from a French rocket that had exploded a decade earlier.
* On Feb. 10, 2009, a defunct Russian satellite collided with and destroyed a functioning U.S. Iridium commercial satellite. The collision added more than 2,000 pieces of trackable debris to the inventory of space junk.
* China's 2007 anti-satellite test, which used a missile to destroy an old weather satellite, added more than 3,000 pieces to the debris problem.
Solutions for Space Waste:
1. Giant Lasers:
Using high-powered pulsed lasers based on Earth to create plasma jets on space debris could cause them to slow down slightly and to then re-enter and either burn up in the atmosphere or fall into the oceans. "The method is called Laser Orbital Debris Removal (LODR) and it wouldn't require new technology to be developed - it would use laser technology that has been around for 15 years. It would be relatively cheap, and readily available." The biggest hitch, other than adding more litter to the oceans, is the estimated $1 million per object price tag.
The rising population of space debris increases the potential danger to all space vehicles, but especially to the International Space Station, space shuttles and other spacecraft with humans aboard.
Orbital Debris:
Space debris encompasses both natural (meteoroid) and artificial (man-made) particles. Meteoroids are in orbit about the sun, while most artificial debris is in orbit about the Earth. Hence, the latter is more commonly referred to as orbital debris.Orbital debris is any man-made object in orbit about the Earth which no longer serves a useful function. Such debris includes nonfunctional spacecraft, abandoned launch vehicle stages, mission-related debris and fragmentation debris.
There are more than 20,000 pieces of debris larger than a softball orbiting the Earth. They travel at speeds up to 17,500 mph, fast enough for a relatively small piece of orbital debris to damage a satellite or a spacecraft. There are 500,000 pieces of debris the size of a marble or larger. There are many millions of pieces of debris that are so small they can’t be tracked.
“The greatest risk to space missions comes from non-trackable debris,” said Nicholas Johnson, NASA chief scientist for orbital debris.
In 1996, a French satellite was hit and damaged by debris from a French rocket that had exploded a decade earlier.
* On Feb. 10, 2009, a defunct Russian satellite collided with and destroyed a functioning U.S. Iridium commercial satellite. The collision added more than 2,000 pieces of trackable debris to the inventory of space junk.
* China's 2007 anti-satellite test, which used a missile to destroy an old weather satellite, added more than 3,000 pieces to the debris problem.
Solutions for Space Waste:
1. Giant Lasers:
Using high-powered pulsed lasers based on Earth to create plasma jets on space debris could cause them to slow down slightly and to then re-enter and either burn up in the atmosphere or fall into the oceans. "The method is called Laser Orbital Debris Removal (LODR) and it wouldn't require new technology to be developed - it would use laser technology that has been around for 15 years. It would be relatively cheap, and readily available." The biggest hitch, other than adding more litter to the oceans, is the estimated $1 million per object price tag.
2. Space Balloons:
The Gossamer Orbit Lowering Device, or GOLD system, uses an ultra-thin balloon (thinner than a plastic sandwich bag), which is inflated with gas to the size of a football field and then attached to large pieces of space debris. The GOLD balloon will increase the drag of objects enough so that the space junk will enter the earth's atmosphere and burn up. If the system works, it could speed up the re-entry of some objects from a couple hundred years to just a few months.
3.Wall of Water:
Another idea for cleaning up space junk, from James Hollopeter of GIT Satellite, is to launch rockets full of water into space. The rockets would release their payload to create a wall of water that orbiting junk would bump into, slow down, and fall out of orbit. The Ballistic Orbital Removal System is said to be able to be put into action inexpensively, by launching water on decommissioned missiles.
And many more......
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