Space debris

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Image:Debris-GEO1280.jpg Space debris or orbital debris, also called space junk and space waste, are the objects in orbit around Earth created by humans that no longer serve any useful purpose. They consist of everything from entire spent rocket stages and defunct satellites to explosion fragments, paint flakes, dust and slag from solid rocket motors, coolant released by RORSAT nuclear powered satellites, even deliberate insertion of small needles, and other small particles<ref>Technical report on space debris (PDF). United Nations (1999). Retrieved on 2006-04-05.ISBN 92-1-100813-1</ref>.

Image:Hypervelocity Impact Demonstration.jpg According to Edward Tufte's book Envisioning Information, space debris objects have included a glove lost by astronaut Ed White on the first American space-walk, a camera Michael Collins lost near the spacecraft Gemini 10, garbage bags, a wrench and a toothbrush. Most of those unusual objects have re-entered the atmosphere of the Earth within weeks due to the orbits where they were released and their small sizes. Things like these are not major contributors to the space debris environment. On the other side, explosion events are a major contribution to the space debris problem. About 100 tons of fragments generated during approximately 200 such events are still in orbit. Space debris is most concentrated in low Earth orbit, though some extends out past geosynchronous orbit.

Space debris has become a growing concern in recent years, since collisions at orbital velocities can be highly damaging to functioning satellites and can also produce even more space debris in the process, called Kessler Syndrome. Some spacecraft, like the International Space Station, are now armored to deal with this hazard. Also astronauts on EVA are vulnerable; see Extra-vehicular activity.

The first verified collision with catalogued space debris occurred in 1996, tearing off a boom from the French satellite Cerise.

Clouds of very small particles are not as serious but cause erosive damage, like sandblasting.

1 Mitigation measures
2 Space debris measurements
3 Gabbard diagrams
4 Trivia
- 4.1 References in popular culture
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Mitigation measures

Spatial density of space debris by altitude according to ESA MASTER-2001.

In order to mitigate the generation of additional space debris, a number of measures have been proposed: The passivation of spent upper stages by the release of residual fuels is aimed at decreasing the risk of on-orbit explosions that could generate thousands of additional debris objects.

Taking satellites out of orbit at the end of their operational life would also be an effective mitigation measure. This could be facilitated with a "terminator tether," an electrodynamic tether that is rolled out, and slows down the spacecraft.<ref>Christensen, Bill. The Terminator Tether Aims to Clean Up Low Earth Orbit. Retrieved on 2006-03-08.</ref> In cases when a direct (and controlled) de-orbit would require too much fuel the satellite can also be brought to an orbit where atmospheric drag would cause it to de-orbit after some years. Such a maneuver was successfully performed with the French Spot-1 satellite at the end of 2003. It will re-enter in approximately 15 years.

In orbital altitudes where it would not be economically feasible to de-orbit a satellite, like in the geostationary ring they are brought to a graveyard orbit where no operational satellites are present.

Proposals have been made for ways to "sweep" space debris back into Earth's atmosphere, including automated tugs, laser brooms to vaporize or nudge particles into rapidly-decaying orbits, or huge aerogel blobs to absorb impacting junk and eventually fall out of orbit with them trapped inside. However, currently most effort is being devoted to prevention of collisions by keeping track of larger debris, and prevention of more debris.

Other ideas include the gathering of larger objects into an orbital "junk yard", where they could be used as resources should future needs arise, while keeping them out of the way.

[edit] Space debris measurements

The Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) is an important source of information on the small particle space debris environment

The U.S. Strategic Command is maintaining a catalogue currently containing about 10,000 objects, also to prevent misinterpretation as hostile missiles. Observation data gathered by a number of ground based radar facilities and telescopes as well as by a space based telescope<ref>The Space-Based Visible Program. MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Retrieved on 2006-03-08.</ref> is used to maintain this catalogue. Nevertheless, the majority of debris objects remain unobserved. There are more than 600,000 objects larger than 1 cm in orbit (according to the ESA Meteoroid and Space Debris Terrestrial Environment Reference, the MASTER-2005 model).

Other sources of knowledge on the actual space debris environment include measurement campaigns by the ESA Space Debris Telescope, TIRA<ref>Klinkrad, H.. Monitoring Space – Efforts Made by European Countries (PDF). Retrieved on 2006-03-08.</ref>, Goldstone radar, Haystack radar,<ref>MIT Haystack Observatory. Retrieved on 2006-03-08.</ref> and the Cobra Dane phased array radar.<ref>AN/FPS-108 COBRA DANE. Retrieved on 2006-03-08.</ref> The data gathered during these campaigns is used to validate models of the debris environment like ESA-MASTER. Such models are the only means of assessing the impact risk caused by space debris as only larger objects can be regularly tracked.

Returned space debris hardware is also a valuable source of information on the (submillimetre) space debris environment. The LDEF satellite deployed by STS-41-C Challenger and retrieved by STS-32 Columbia spent 68 months in orbit. The close examination of its surfaces allowed the analysis of the directional distribution and the composition of debris flux. The EURECA satellite deployed by STS-46 Atlantis in 1992 and retrieved by STS-57 Endeavour in 1993 could provide additional insight.

The solar arrays of the Hubble Space Telescope returned during missions STS-61 Endeavour and STS-109 Columbia are an important source of information on the debris environment. The impact craters found on the surface were counted and classified by ESA to provide another means for validating debris environment models.

[edit] Gabbard diagrams

Space debris groups resulting from satellite breakups are often studied using scatterplots known as Gabbard diagrams. In a Gabbard diagram the perigee and apogee altitudes of the individual debris fragments resulting from a collision are plotted with respect to the orbital period of each fragment. The distribution of the resulting diagram can be used to infer information such as direction and point of impact.<ref>Portree, David and Loftus, Joseph (1999). "Orbital Debris: A Chronology". NASA. See p.13.</ref> <ref>Whitlock, David O. (2004). "History of On-Orbit Satellite Fragmentations". NASA JSC. "Gabbard diagrams of the early debris cloud prior to the effects of perturbations, if the data were available, are reconstructed. These diagrams often include uncataloged as well as cataloged debris data. When used correctly, Gabbard diagrams can provide important insights into the features of the fragmentation."</ref>

[edit] Trivia

Lottie Williams is on record as the first and only (as of September 2006) person ever to be hit by space debris created by humans. While walking in a park in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on January 22, 1997 at 3:30 am, she noticed a light in the sky that she said looked like a meteor. Minutes later, Williams was hit in the shoulder by a 6-inch blackened metal object that was later confirmed to be part of the fuel tank of a Delta II rocket which had launched a U.S. Air Force satellite in 1996. Ms. Williams was not injured.<ref>Today in Science History. Retrieved on 2006-03-08.</ref>

On October 10, 2006, a cottage in Germany was burned down by a fire that was believed to be started by a small bolide (no more than 10mm). A 77 year old man was badly injured by the fire.<ref>German cottage destroyed by meteor. Retrieved on 2006-10-21.</ref>

[edit] References in popular culture

The manga and anime Planetes is about a team of space debris collectors.
In the TV-series Dead Like Me, the main protagonist suffers an untimely death in the first episode after being hit by space debris (actually a toilet seat from the de-orbiting of the Mir space station).
In the 1970 TV-series UFO, the episode "Conflict" centers around Commander Strakers discovery of an alien device hidden in space debris.