Quick! Space Junk!

[TheExcession]

A bit late for a heads up, but BBC4 are showing an Horizon episode about space junk.

Very very interesting.

[Eric Mc]

A repeat?

[TheExcession]

Eric Mc said:

A repeat?

Undoubtedly Eric, most BBC4 stuff is, but still a fascinating insight into just how much stuff is up there and the problems/concerns it is causing. They mentioned having to move the ISS three times in 2014, so perhaps not that out of date.

Allegedly the US are tracking items down to the size of a cricket ball!! but a flake of hardened paint travelling at 14km/s is alsmost just as deadly.

They said there are over 1000 steerable satellites in orbit but over 200,000 which aren't. I'm guessing they were talking LEO or MEO satellites, and I guess that there is probably a lot more 'space' out in GS orbits.

The problem remains, when two items collide the energy involved is so high that it sets free a myriad of other debris that can't be tracked.

Perhaps some one should get James Dyson on the case to get up there and start hoovering it all up

[Eric Mc]

I think I saw it first time around. It was released around the same time as the movie "Gravity" - which is based on a similar theme - even if the movie contains all sorts of exaggerated improbabilities.

[Simpo Two]

TheExcession said:

The problem remains, when two items collide the energy involved is so high that it sets free a myriad of other debris that can't be tracked.

IIRC things in the same orbit go at the same speed so can't do much colliding. Perhaps the problem is elliptical orbits?

[C0ffin D0dger]

I didn't see this the first time around but watched the first couple of minutes last night and then hit record (had a few things to do before bed time). As I develop satellite communication systems for aircraft for a living it's quite an interesting subject.

In case you haven't seen it this website is a real eye opener for all the stuff that's floating around up there: http://stuffin.space/

[Eric Mc]

Simpo Two said:

TheExcession said:

The problem remains, when two items collide the energy involved is so high that it sets free a myriad of other debris that can't be tracked.

IIRC things in the same orbit go at the same speed so can't do much colliding. Perhaps the problem is elliptical orbits?

Not everything is in the same orbit. Indeed, most of the stuff in orbit around the earth isn't.

[TheD]

The fella explained it pretty well when he said that if you can imagine the whole Earth was paved over, and everyone could drive in any direction they want, that is how space junk moves around. Except at 12,000 mph

[Simpo Two]

Eric Mc said:

Not everything is in the same orbit. Indeed, most of the stuff in orbit around the earth isn't.

Ah I get it - at the same height but on intersecting paths, eg could be at 90 degrees. Yes, that could cause a bit of a biff.

But if that presented a collision problem then things would be colliding and falling out of the sky all the time...

[Eric Mc]

Despite the amount of stuff up there, space is big and most of the time these objects miss. But now and then things do smack into each other. A Space Shuttle had a collision with a fleck of paint, which caused a crater in one of the cockpit windscreen windows.

A few years ago two satellites actually collided.

It does happen.

[scubadude]

Eric Mc said:

A few years ago two satellites actually collided.

I think that's how they got the idea for cloud sats....



I'll get my coat.