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'''Space debris''' or '''orbital debris''', also called '''space junk''' and space waste, are the objects in [[orbit]] around [[Earth]] created by humans, and that no longer serve any useful purpose. They consist of everything from entire spent [[rocket]] stages and defunctional [[satellite]]s to explosion fragments, paint flakes, dust, and slag from solid rocket motors, coolant released by [[RORSAT]] nuclear powered satellites, deliberate insertion of [[Project West Ford|small needles]], and other small particles.<ref>{{cite web|year=1999|url=http://www.unoosa.org/pdf/reports/ac105/AC105_720E.pdf|title=Technical report on space debris|format=[[Portable Document Format|PDF]]|publisher=United Nations|accessdate=2006-04-05}}ISBN 92-1-100813-1</ref> Clouds of very small particles may cause erosive damage, like [[sandblasting]].
'''Space debris''' or '''orbital debris''', also called '''space junk''' and space waste, are the objects in [[orbit]] around [[Earth]] created by humans, and that no longer serve any useful purpose. They consist of everything from entire spent [[rocket]] stages and defunctional [[satellite]]s to explosion fragments, paint flakes, dust, and slag from solid rocket motors, coolant released by [[RORSAT]] nuclear powered satellites, deliberate insertion of [[Project West Ford|small needles]], and other small particles.<ref>{{cite web|year=1999|url=http://www.unoosa.org/pdf/reports/ac105/AC105_720E.pdf|title=Technical report on space debris|format=[[Portable Document Format|PDF]]|publisher=United Nations|accessdate=2006-04-05}}ISBN 92-1-100813-1</ref> Clouds of very small particles may cause erosive damage, like [[sandblasting]].


Space "junk" has become a growing concern in recent years, since [[collision]]s at [[Orbital speed|orbital velocities]] can be highly damaging to functional satellites and can also produce even more space debris in the process, This is called the [[Kessler Syndrome]]. Some spacecrafts, like the [[International Space Station]], are now [[Whipple shield|armored]] to mitigate damage with this hazard.<ref>{{cite conference | title = New Protection Concepts for Meteoroid / Debris Shields | author = Thoma, K.; Wicklein, M.; Schneider, E. | booktitle = Proceedings of the 4th European Conference on Space Debris (ESA SP-587) | publisher = ESA/ESOC | editor = D. Danesy (editor) | pages = 445 | date = 2005-08 }} 18&ndash;20 April 2005 in Darmstadt, Germany. [http://www.cosis.net/abstracts/SPACE2005/00155/SPACE2005-A-00155.pdf Abstract].</ref> Astronauts on [[Extra-vehicular activity#EVA hazards|space-walks]] are also vulnerable.
Space "junk" has become a growing concern in recent years, since [[collision]]s at [[Orbital speed|orbital velocities]] can be highly damaging to functional satellites and can also produce even more space debris in the process. This is called the [[Kessler Syndrome]]. Some spacecrafts, like the [[International Space Station]], are now [[Whipple shield|armored]] to mitigate damage with this hazard.<ref>{{cite conference | title = New Protection Concepts for Meteoroid / Debris Shields | author = Thoma, K.; Wicklein, M.; Schneider, E. | booktitle = Proceedings of the 4th European Conference on Space Debris (ESA SP-587) | publisher = ESA/ESOC | editor = D. Danesy (editor) | pages = 445 | date = 2005-08 }} 18&ndash;20 April 2005 in Darmstadt, Germany. [http://www.cosis.net/abstracts/SPACE2005/00155/SPACE2005-A-00155.pdf Abstract].</ref> Astronauts on [[Extra-vehicular activity#EVA hazards|space-walks]] are also vulnerable.


In the first collision of its kind, on 11 February 2009, the deactivated {{Kosmos|2251}} spacecraft collided with the operational [[Iridium 33]] satellite, resulting in the destruction of both spacecraft. The collision scattered considerable debris, which posed an elevated risk to space craft.<ref name="I33-K2251">{{cite web|url=http://www.space.com/news/090211-satellite-collision.html|title=U.S. Satellite Destroyed in Space Collision|last=Iannotta|first=Becky|date=2009-02-11|publisher=Space.com|accessdate=2009-02-11}}</ref>
In the first collision of its kind, on 11 February 2009, the deactivated {{Kosmos|2251}} spacecraft collided with the operational [[Iridium 33]] satellite, resulting in the destruction of both spacecraft. The collision scattered considerable debris, which posed an elevated risk to space craft.<ref name="I33-K2251">{{cite web|url=http://www.space.com/news/090211-satellite-collision.html|title=U.S. Satellite Destroyed in Space Collision|last=Iannotta|first=Becky|date=2009-02-11|publisher=Space.com|accessdate=2009-02-11}}</ref>

Revision as of 07:11, 21 February 2009

Space debris populations seen from outside geosynchronous orbit.
The "energy flash" of a hypervelocity impact during a simulation of what happens when a piece of orbital debris hits a spacecraft in orbit.

Space debris or orbital debris, also called space junk and space waste, are the objects in orbit around Earth created by humans, and that no longer serve any useful purpose. They consist of everything from entire spent rocket stages and defunctional satellites to explosion fragments, paint flakes, dust, and slag from solid rocket motors, coolant released by RORSAT nuclear powered satellites, deliberate insertion of small needles, and other small particles.[1] Clouds of very small particles may cause erosive damage, like sandblasting.

Space "junk" has become a growing concern in recent years, since collisions at orbital velocities can be highly damaging to functional satellites and can also produce even more space debris in the process. This is called the Kessler Syndrome. Some spacecrafts, like the International Space Station, are now armored to mitigate damage with this hazard.[2] Astronauts on space-walks are also vulnerable.

In the first collision of its kind, on 11 February 2009, the deactivated Template:Kosmos spacecraft collided with the operational Iridium 33 satellite, resulting in the destruction of both spacecraft. The collision scattered considerable debris, which posed an elevated risk to space craft.[3]

History

In 1958, the United States launched a satellite named Vanguard I. It became one of the longest surviving pieces of space junk and as of March 2008 remains the oldest piece still in orbit.[4]

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 jettisoned by the Soviet Mir cosmonauts throughout the space station's 15-year life[4]; and a wrench and toothbrush. Sunita Williams of STS-116 also lost a camera during EVA. In an EVA to reinforce a torn solar panel during STS-120, a pair of pliers was lost and most recently, during STS-126, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper lost a briefcase-sized tool bag in one of the mission's EVAs. Most of those everyday objects have re-entered the Earth's atmosphere within weeks due to the orbits where they were released. Items like these are not major contributors to the space debris environment. On the other hand, 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. Thus space debris is most concentrated in low Earth orbit, though some extends out past geosynchronous orbit.

The first official Space Shuttle collision avoidance maneuver was during STS-48 in September 1991. A 7-second reaction control system burn was performed to avoid debris from the Cosmos satellite 955.

On 27 of March, 2007, wreckage from a Russian spy satellite passed dangerously close to a Lan Chile (LAN Airlines) Airbus A340[5], which was travelling between Santiago, Chile, and Auckland, New Zealand carrying 270 passengers, reentering over the Pacific Ocean which is considered among the safest places in the world to bring down satellites due to its unpopulated vastness.

The worst uncontrolled reentry in history occurred in July 1979, when Skylab, America's abandoned, 78-ton space station came down earlier than planned, raining debris across the Australian outback.[6]

A hazard analysis conducted for a planned October 2008 mission of the space shuttle Atlantis concluded that its greatest risk was from space debris, with a 1-in-185 chance of catastrophic impact. This level of risk requires a top-level launch decision. Whereas a typical space shuttle mission to the International Space Station, at a 200-nautical-mile (370 km) altitude, involves a 1-in-300 risk, the risk is greater in a mission such as this one to the Hubble Space Telescope, which orbits at a 300 nmi (560 km) altitude where there is more debris. Risk mitigation plans for this mission included flying the shuttle tail-first, placing the main engines as the first contact with any debris.[7]

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 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.[8] In cases when a direct (and controlled) de-orbit would require too much fuel, a 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, bringing its time to atmospheric reentry down from a projected 200 years to about 15 years by lowering its perigee from 830 km to about 550 km[9].

In orbital altitudes where it would not be economically feasible to de-orbit a satellite, such as in the geostationary ring, the ageing satellites 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, most current efforts are being devoted to prevention of collisions by keeping track of the larger debris, and prevention of more debris.

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 maintains a catalogue currently containing about 13,000 objects, in part 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[10] 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[11], Goldstone radar, Haystack radar,[12] and the Cobra Dane phased array radar.[13] 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.

Gabbard diagram of almost 300 debris from the disintegration of the 5-months old third stage of the Chinese Long March 4 booster on March 11, 2000. The spread of debris to longer orbital periods and higher apogees indicates that those debris were propelled in the prograde direction.

NASA Orbital Debris Observatory tracked space debris using a 3 m liquid mirror transit telescope. [14]

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.[15] [16]

Significant debris-creation events

The largest space debris incident in history was the Chinese anti-satellite weapon test on January 11, 2007.[17] The event was estimated to have created more than 2300 pieces (updated 12/13/07) of trackable debris (approximately golf ball size or larger), over 35,000 pieces 1 cm or larger, and 1 million pieces 1 mm or larger. The debris event is more significant than previous anti-satellite tests in that the debris field has a higher orbit altitude[clarification needed], resulting in deorbit times of 35 years and greater. In June 2007, NASA's Terra environmental spacecraft was the first to be moved in order to prevent impacts from this debris.[18]

An event of similar magnitude occurred on February 19, 2007, when a Russian Briz-M booster stage exploded in orbit over Australia. The booster had been launched on February 28, 2006, carrying an Arabsat-4A communication satellite but malfunctioned before it could use all of its fuel. The explosion was captured on film by several astronomers, but due to the path of the orbit the debris cloud has been hard to quantify using radar. Although similar in magnitude, the debris field is at a lower altitude[clarification needed] than the Chinese anti-satellite test and much debris will re-enter the atmosphere in a relatively short time. As of February 21, 2007, over 1,000 fragments had been identified.[19][20] A third breakup event also occurred on 14 February 2007 as recorded by Celes Trak.[21] In 2006, the most breakups occurred since 1993 with eight breakups.[22]

Additionally on February 20, 2008, the U.S. launched an SM-3 Missile from the USS Lake Erie specially designed to destroy a defective U.S. spy satellite feared to carry 1,000 pounds of toxic hydrazine fuel. The debris created by this event occurring at about 250 km altitude results in all the debris having a perigee of 250 km or lower. Although the apogee of some debris may be higher due to the explosion, the low perigee altitude will cause all debris to re-enter the atmosphere in a relatively short time period. [23]

On Tuesday, February 10, 2009, the retired Kosmos-2251 Russian satellite with a mass of almost a ton collided 500 miles above Siberia with the Iridium 33 commercial satellite weighing 1,235 pounds. The collision created a debris cloud although accurate estimates of the number of pieces of debris are not yet available.[24]

Significant debris impact events

The first verified collision with catalogued space debris occurred in 1996, tearing off a boom from the French satellite Cerise.[25]

Only one person has ever been recorded hit by manmade space debris: in 1997 an Oklahoma woman named Lottie Williams was hit in the shoulder by a 10 x 13 cm piece of blackened, woven metallic material 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. She was not injured.[26][27][28]

Space debris in fiction

The problems caused by space debris are a major theme in the manga / anime Planetes.

In the computer-animated film WALL-E, the scene in which the two main characters are leaving an over polluted Earth shows their spacecraft passing through a belt of orbiting debris.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Technical report on space debris" (PDF). United Nations. 1999. Retrieved 2006-04-05.ISBN 92-1-100813-1
  2. ^ Thoma, K.; Wicklein, M.; Schneider, E. (2005-08). "New Protection Concepts for Meteoroid / Debris Shields". In D. Danesy (editor) (ed.). Proceedings of the 4th European Conference on Space Debris (ESA SP-587). ESA/ESOC. p. 445. {{cite conference}}: |editor= has generic name (help); Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |booktitle= ignored (|book-title= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) 18–20 April 2005 in Darmstadt, Germany. Abstract.
  3. ^ Iannotta, Becky (2009-02-11). "U.S. Satellite Destroyed in Space Collision". Space.com. Retrieved 2009-02-11.
  4. ^ a b Space junk, USA WEEKEND Magazine, by Julian Smith, August 26, 2007
  5. ^ [1], Flaming space junk narrowly misses jet, Mar. 28, 2007
  6. ^ [2], Time, by Jeffery Kluger, Jan. 28, 2008
  7. ^ Aviation Week & Space Technology, Vol. 169 No. 10, 15 Sept. 2008, "Debris Danger", p. 18
  8. ^ {jonas brothers/www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/technovel_tether_041117.html| title=The Terminator Tether Aims to Clean Up Low Earth Orbit| first=Bill| last=Christensen| accessdate=2006-03-08}}
  9. ^ Peter B. de Selding. "CNES Begins Deorbiting Spot-1 Earth Observation Satellite". Space News. Retrieved 2009-02-20.
  10. ^ "The Space-Based Visible Program". MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Retrieved 2006-03-08. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |authors= ignored (help)
  11. ^ Klinkrad, H. "Monitoring Space - Efforts Made by European Countries" (PDF). Retrieved 2006-03-08.
  12. ^ "MIT Haystack Observatory". Retrieved 2006-03-08.
  13. ^ "AN/FPS-108 COBRA DANE". Retrieved 2006-03-08.
  14. ^ http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/measure/optical.html
  15. ^ Portree, David and Loftus, Joseph (1999). "Orbital Debris: A Chronology" (PDF). NASA. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) See p.13.
  16. ^ Whitlock, David O. (2004). "History of On-Orbit Satellite Fragmentations" (PDF). NASA JSC. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help) "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."
  17. ^ "Chinese ASAT Test". Retrieved 2007-07-04.
  18. ^ Burger, Brian. "NASA's Terra Satellite Moved to Avoid Chinese ASAT Debris". Retrieved 2007-07-06.
  19. ^ "Rocket Explosion". Spaceweather.com. 22 February 2007. Retrieved 2007-02-21.
  20. ^ Than, Ker (21 February 2007). "Rocket Explodes Over Australia, Showers Space with Debris". Space.com. Retrieved 2007-02-21.
  21. ^ "Recent Debris Events". celestrak.com. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
  22. ^ "Spate of rocket breakups creates new space junk". NewScientist.com. 2007-01-17. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
  23. ^ "Pentagon: Missile Scored Direct Hit on Satellite". 21 February 2008.
  24. ^ "2 big satellites collide 500 miles over Siberia". yahoo.com. 2009-02-11. Retrieved 2009-02-11.
  25. ^ "CO2 prolongs life of space junk". BBC News. Retrieved 2006-03-08.
  26. ^ "Today in Science History". Retrieved 2006-03-08.
  27. ^ "Paul Maley's Satellite Page". Retrieved 2007-10-28.
  28. ^ "Space the final junkyard, documentary film".
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