ISS Holed by Space Rock!

[james_davis_nicoll]

Happily, not in a bit with humans inside.

(via CMDR Hadfield's twitter feed)

Comments

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Indeed! Very happily so!

[bunsen-h.livejournal.com]

"Well, it must have been a blue moon. We were hit."

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

???

That little blue speck on the PV panel? That's a hole?

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

That's a hole, with the Earth as a backdrop.

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

Manifestly this calls for a huge Congressional investigation.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Background & Introduction (http://congrexprojects.com/13a09)

Since 1957, more than 4,900 space launches have led to an on-orbit population today of more than 22,000 trackable objects, with sizes larger than 10 cm. Approximately 1,000 of these are operational spacecraft. The remaining 94% are space debris, i.e. objects which no longer serve any useful purpose. About 64% of the routinely tracked objects are fragments from some 250 breakups, mainly explosions and collisions of satellites or rocket bodies. In addition, an estimated 700,000 objects larger than 1 cm and 170 million objects larger than 1 mm are expected to be in Earth orbits.  
 
Due to relative orbital velocities of up 56,000 km/h, centimeter-sized debris can seriously damage or disable an operational spacecraft, and collisions with objects larger than 10 cm will lead to catastrophic break-ups, releasing hazardous debris clouds of which some fragments can cause further catastrophic collisions that may lead to an unstable debris environment in some orbit regions (“Kessler syndrome”). Space debris mitigation measures, if properly implemented by spacecraft designers and mission operators, can curtail the growth rate of the debris population. Active debris removal, however, has been shown to be necessary to reverse the debris increase.
 
To improve our understanding of the space debris environment, assess related risks, mitigate its growth, and control its stability, a multitude of technical  disciplines is required. Many of these will be addressed in the course of this conference by recognized experts in their fields.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

And an sfnal reaction to the issue that would not be commercial over here.

Planetes (プラネテス Puranetesu?, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes)P Ancient Greek: Πλανήτης "planet" or "wandering"[1]) is a Japanese hard science fiction manga by Makoto Yukimura. It was adapted as a 26-episode anime television series by Sunrise, which was broadcast on NHK from October 2003 through April 2004. The story revolves around a team of space debris collectors based in the debris ship Toy Box in the year 2075.

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

Oscar Mike Foxtrot Golf.

[ilya187.livejournal.com]

What's your point?

I am not being snarky -- in this context, "OMFG!" may apply to several different things.

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

I had been operating under the blissful misapprehension that I was engaging in ironic hyperbole.

[joenotcharles.livejournal.com]

My brain cannot stop interpreting that as a tower looming over the viewer with a backdrop of cloudy sky.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Even knowing better, that's what the visual processor sees. And those must be banners hanging down on either side.

[voidampersand.livejournal.com]

It most certainly is. Just that the sky is below the tower, not above it.

[anansi133.livejournal.com]

How many decades (millenia) does it take for this problem to fix itself, for these orbits to decay on their own?

Higher orbits are going to be safer than cheaper orbits, right?

If the correct angle could be achieved (like L5 for example) could laser light apply enough pressure to de-orbit this junk?

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

Lasers have been discussed for dealing with debris, but by using a pulsed laser to vaporize material from the forward-facing surface of a debris particle, not photon pressure itself (which would be much weaker).

Large optics would be needed to find, track, and target debris particles, as well as powerful pulsed lasers. Still, this probably makes more sense than sending a vehicle around to harvest the tiny bits.