Spaceship Graveyards and Massive Debris—Part II
With so much space debris accumulating in space, the space agencies and satellite operators are beginning to work on solutions to retrieve space junk and pull it out of orbit. Statistics show that presently there are 10,000 pieces of space junk floating around in space that are larger and longer than 10-centimetres, traveling at 22,000-kilometres per hour. In addition to this, approximately 900 active satellites are involved in this dangerous situation. .
Space experts say that one piece of debris about 1-centimeter in size can depressurize a spacecraft. Not a new thing, history shows this has been going on for awhile with full knowledge that the area between the moon and Earth is filled with many types of space trash—burnt-out rocket casings, broken satellites, spacesuits, broken satellites, the debris from experiments from anti-satellite weapons, and smaller amounts of space debris. The unfortunate aspect is that this garbage will circulate Earth for many years until it hits something, which forms smaller particles of space debris.
With both China and the Unites States guilty of shooting down their own satellites before they fell to Earth for many obvious reasons, there are presently many answers being utilized for the space debris problem:
· Radar is tracking pieces of space debris which allows spacecraft to veer around them
· Tougher spacecraft can be built to survive impacts, protecting them from both space debris and meteoroid impacts
· Space faring countries have all agreed to “reduce” their numbers of derelict satellites which could hit working satellites or fall to Earth
o This is being solved by steering older satellites into useless orbits
o These older satellites are also being steered into paths that will allow them to be burnt in the Earth’s atmosphere.
It seems that the primary sources of past space debris originally were accidental and intentional breakups of the launched vehicle. Unfortunately, in the near future this will change to a massive amount of space debris caused by collisions. Space systems are being requested to limit the amount of debris during normal launching operations and minimize any potential for operational phase break-ups.
With space debris bringing about many experiments over the years, back in 2004 NewScientist came out with an article that stated ESA was teaming up with a pair of physicists who smash eggs, founded on the idea that eggshells and discarded pieces of space rockets will break up similarly. The study was begun because from 1950 to 2004, it seems as if approximately 200 explosions had occurred in space, with old rocket bodies involved in slightly under half that amount.
” More than 8500 pieces of space debris bigger than 10 centimetres across are being tracked by the world’s space agencies. In a bid to estimate the danger from fragments in the 1 to 10-centimetre range, ESA ran experiments in the early 1990s in which rocket fuel was used to blow up metal cylinders in an underground bunker. ” (ESA)
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