Slashdot Mirror
ISS Dodges Space Junk For First Time In Five Years
Kligat writes "For the first time since 2003, the International Space Station has utilized the rockets on the European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle to dodge leftover remnants of a defunct satellite. The Russian Cosmos-2421 was launched in June 2006 to track Western Navy vessels and is believed by NASA to have exploded — 'likely due to a self-destruct command issued by Russian officials' according to the article — leaving 500 pieces of space debris. Ordinarily, the rockets on the ATV are used to take the ISS away from Earth's atmosphere and reduce drag. In this case, the 5-minute firing caused the ISS to move downward because it was already near the top of its acceptable range. Estimated probability of impact was 1 in 72, and an avoidance maneuver is called for if the probability is greater than 1 in 10,000. The space junk was predicted to pass the ISS within just a mile."
You watch out for spy satellites!
in space so we could catch all the space junk? We just need to be careful that we don't catch any space stations by accident...
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
Pure case of state-controled media going on in Russia. They're not willing to admit they had a spy satellite in the first place, so they're not able to explain where the debris came from. That turns out to be something NASA is more than willing to do for the American side.
Aren't orbital trajectories pretty well known? How is there a 1 in 72 chance that the thing will make a sudden mile-long jog and hit the station?
Should that be "away from Earth's atmosphere to reduce drag"?
I'm not a rocket scientist. Is there another kind of drag that needs to be reduced?
DOH!
Space station has 1 in 72 chance of getting hit by space junk, fires rockets to move so it's a mile away getting closer to 1 in 10000...
story at 11
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ATV/SEM64X0SAKF_0.html
space station dodge you
this post made me wonder. could they repurpose the nautilus anti missle laser system to knock the space junk that threatens the station out of the vacum of space. Or could it make things worse? (lots of tiny particles you can't avoid vs. a couple of big particles.
Time to call the Space Debris Section of Technora Corporation.... I wonder how far something like Planetes is off from reality at times. Excellent series. GrpA
Enjoy science fiction? "Turing Evolved" - AI, Mecha, Androids and rail-gun battles. What more could you want?
I obviously don't know enough about the space industry but maybe they should sinc more often?
Never tell me the odds!
Any fans of the anime Planetes ?
They should attach large electromagnets to the ISS and collect all of the space junk it passes by for recycling. I wonder what payment the recycling depot would give for satellite parts.
I don't keep track of shuttle payloads, but I would imagine that there would be room for a satellite or two in the cargo bay on the return trip.
That's a heck of a close call, considering the ISS is traveling at 4.8 miles per second. That's little like a car at highway speed running a red light and missing another car by less than one car length.
Patrick Doyle
I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
Orbits constantly change depending on the size of the object interacting with the far upper reaches of the atmosphere, hitting other space junk, deteriorating from radical oxygen and radiation, etc. The U.S. is constantly updating the 13,000 or so objects being tracked, and that's only the stuff 4 inches or larger diameter.
Impetuous! Homeric!
Here's a graph of ISS altitude for the last year, if anyone is interested in hard data. (The steady downward slope is due to atmospheric drag, and the sharp increases are from firing maneuvering thrusters to maintain altitude. Presumably, the recent abrupt drop was the maneuver described in the article.)
Anyone here know how they calculate "impact probability" ? I mean, my poor man's logic seems to think you either hit something, or you don't. Bool 1, or Bool 0.
If you miss something by a mile, how does that wind up being a 1 in 72 probability ? No offense to the space buffs, of which I am not one, but that sounds like game show odds to me: "You're bound to lose, but let's all act excited anyway!"
-Billco, Fnarg.com
maybe they were just quoting the engineers who had built the satellite...
[intercom:] "(sszzkk) uh, we need a cleanup on mile 183... that's a satellite cleanup on mile 183."
And my hypothetical intersection doesn't have to be at right angles either.
Patrick Doyle
I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
All kidding aside, the value of a pound of aluminum in LEO has to be thousands of dollars... I wonder if someday it might make sense for a larger, commercial space station to try to capture any random piece of matter that crosses its orbit, just for raw materials.
"He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
> ISS Dodges Space Junk For First Time In Five Years
It must be really banged up after 5 years of hitting space junk.
Admit it! You thought it too!
..."informative"?
It's only 2 years old.
The Russian "contribution" to the ISS has been pretty much only obstacles. And that's why, ladies and gentlemen, the US plans to rely on Russian launches for our entire ISS mission programme.
--
make install -not war
Its correct because the mods had no idea.
Semi-automatic amateur armchair Australian philosopher; conjecture ready at any moment...
Here's an idea I had some time back, don't know it it would work but here goes. Why not fly a big lightweight coil - say 1 or 2km diameter - with a current running through it. Angle the coil at a few degrees from vertical, and make it moveable. It could be manouevered so piece of space junk moving at very high velocity goes through the middle. Minute eddy currents generated in the object would slow it down or deflect it downwards, eventually losing orbit. The ring would have ion thrusters to counteract the upwards force. After a few decades of operation it might clear up LEO.... perhaps?
If our ISS shields can't even handle space debris how are we supposed to defend against photon canons or sharks with lasers?
Yeah, I imagine some of the top-secret nuclear waste some of them might be recovering is totally worth a lot of money!!!
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
And this is why ALL space-stations need at least one death ray.
+ Informative adds to karma while + Funny does not. "Helpful" mods have been rating comedy posts as Informative to give the poster better karma. This practice fucks up the karma system and needs to stop. Unfortunately, stopping this probably won't be easy.
Then again, maybe I should lighten up and not care so much about this.
Said, "It's just like dice but it's got more sides And it tells me who lives and who dies"
Russia launched this hunk two years ago and already self-destructed it? And that's excusable somehow? Does the DoD do the same? Who's going to clean that shit up? First time one of Sir Richard's space deckers looses passengers and crew - what's he going to do - sue somebody?
"It's a doughnut stuffed with M&M's. That way when you finish the doughnut, you don't have to eat any M&M's."
only SchrÃdinger's Cat knows for sure. :-/
Dead cats are funny. Talking cats are *more* funny. Which one we get when we open that box will determine how this comment gets modded.
That's what I would have said if I were the commander of that space station. Seriously, how often do you get an opportunity like that? Or don't they get to have any fun up there?
One of those lasers they claim can destroy missiles should easily be able to zap a bit of space junk.
No sig today...
There is an anime/manga called Planetes that is entirely about a group who collect dangerous space debris to make Earth orbit safe for commerce. It's actually has an authentic ring to it in terms of the problems, technology and techniques.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating through a satellite debris field is approximately 72 to 1!