Satellite Debris Forces ISS Crew Into Rescue Craft

Muad'Dave writes "CNN is reporting that the crew of the International Space Station was forced to take refuge from a possible collision of the ISS with a piece of space debris Thursday. From the article: 'Floating debris from a satellite forced the crew of the international space station to retreat to a safety capsule Thursday, according to a NASA news release. .. The debris was too close for the space station to move out of the way, so the station's three crew members were temporarily evacuated to a the station's Soyuz TMA-13 capsule, NASA said.'" Update: 03/12 18:42 GMT by T : The original story incorrectly said the ISS had 18 crew members. Luckily for the three in the Soyuz, that was a mistake.

Comments

3 people on board, not 18

[GottMitUns]

There are 3 individuals on board: 2 Americans and 1 Russian.

Expedition 18 to the ISS. Not 18 members.

[JoshuaZ]

The current expedition is Expedition 18. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedition_18 . This likely got garbled at some point from something like "Expedition 18 Crew" to "18 crew."

Re:Soyuz is invincible.

[Anonymous Coward]

If it hits the Soyuz, you just exit the module and seal the airlock. On the other hand, if you're on the far side of the station and it puts a hole in that much larger target, you're in a somewhat more precarious predicament.

Additionally, as the Soyuz is intended to return to earth, with all the stresses and such involved in that, it can probably withstand an impact better than the much less robust station.

Debris Details

[Muad'Dave]

From Space.com:

The wayward satellite motor part came from an outdated PAM-D rocket engine that was once used to boost a satellite from low-Earth orbit a few hundred miles above Earth out to a geosynchronous position about 22,300 miles (36,000 km) above the planet. The debris was small, just 1/3 of an inch long, and was flying at about 19,800 mph, NASA officials said. The space station orbits the Earth at about 17,500 mph.

Here's a picture of a PAM-D motor.

Re:Opportunity is perfect

[david.given]

For example a small craft to grab and safely drop items (lower their speeds at the right time ) could take down items that are 30 CM and bigger.

Harder than you'd think. To deorbit a fragment like this you need to:

1. Change your orbit to match that of the fragment
2. Rendezvous with fragment, then grab it
3. Change your orbit to intersect the atmosphere, then let go of the fragment
4. Change your orbit so that you don't deorbit

So that's three major orbital manoeuvres, per fragment. And that sort of stuff is really expensive: in order to move from a circular orbit around the equator to a circular orbit around the pole, you need twice the delta-V that you used to get into orbit in the first place!

So it would probably be cheaper to use a single disposable vehicle that you launch to a specific debris cloud, and then it collects as much crap as it can and then deorbits. But even that's going to be a major project --- and much of the debris up there right now is on the order of paint flecks, which are damn hard to pick up (or even find).

So this sort of thing isn't nearly as simple as it first sounds...

Hmm, how about a committee?

[White Yeti]

You mean some sort of Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee? They could meet every year to discuss topics and hand out assignments for the next year, and they could make reports to the UN, and stuff. Trouble is, no one else would ever know they existed.