There are about 5 lakh debris or space junk orbiting our planet at a speed of 28000 km/h! This issue is a rising problem for space stations and institutions. Their velocity is very fast, such that it can go through and damage satellites and spacecraft.
WHAT ARE THESE SPACE JUNK
These space junk consists mostly of synthetic materials but also some debris of meteoroids. The artificial junks are the unused or dead spacecraft, launch vehicle stages and mission-related debris.
There is about 2 lakh debris that outsizes a softball, capable of damaging anything that comes in their way.
EVENTS
- 1996: a French satellite was damaged due to the explosion of Fench rocket which occurred a decade earlier.
- February 10, 2009: a disused Russian spacecraft collided and ruined a functioning a US Iridium telescope. It added more than 2000 debris to the orbit!
- 2007: China used missiles to destroy an old weather satellite, adding more than 3000 debris.
HOW TO AVOID HITTING BY A DEBRIS
Nasa is constructing spacecraft which are debris-proof and travelled in a different way to avoid debris. NASA processed all NASA manoeuvrable satellites within low Earth orbit and 200 kilometres of geosynchronous orbit. You can know more about it in NASA's post.
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