Questions about debris in space, often in Earth orbit. Usually referring to nonoperational man-made satellites or parts of satellites.
Questions tagged [debris]
270 questions
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How much of a problem is space junk, and how can we clean it up?
A lot is heard about space junk these days, but how much of a problem is it really to orbiting satellites? Are there many cases of spacecraft being damaged by it, or is it a bit overhyped?
Following on from that, if it is an issue then what measures…
berry120
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How much of the space debris around Earth is man-made?
I know there are over 19000 objects tracked in Earth orbit. I'm wondering how much of it is:
Active man-made satellites that we currently use
Junk that we discarded or resulted from collisions between satellites
Meteoroids or other naturally…
neelsg
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Liquid micrometeorites compared to solids
I'm reading about the 30-or-so USSR RORSAT missions that had unshielded, fast spectrum, highly enriched Uranium nuclear reactors powering a satellite, which was later moved up to a higher "disposal" orbit.
Apparently one of the biggest debris issues…
AlanSE
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Was the recent uncontrolled Chinese rocket de-orbit exceptional?
The recent (April 2021) Chinese CZ-5B rocket launch gained widespread media attention because the large launcher was designed to de-orbit in an uncontrolled fashion, and ultimately landed in the Indian Ocean. This is the second such launch: in 2020,…
SusanW
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What events caused this debris in highly elliptical orbits
This question has been developed from Why are objects in this highly elliptical orbit present in Vimpel but not USSpacecom which I realisd was two questions in one.
Here is the same graphic from AstriaGraph:
Orange dots are active satellites, blue…
Puffin
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What are the causes of breakups of spent 2nd and 3rd stages, resulting in orbital debris?
The HISTORY OF ON-ORBIT SATELLITE FRAGMENTATIONS 14th Edition mentions that there were some design issues with Delta 2nd stages, and an Ariane 3rd stage, leading to in-space explosions/breakup of the spent stages. Some of the mechanisms are given in…
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What is the linear dimension/mass/possible energy state of the smallest trackable orbital debris item?
What is the threshold of detection for small orbital debris? How small can something get before it can no longer be reliably tracked (and therefore avoided)?
Given that collision energy is dependent on the delta-V of the parties to a collision, and…
Anthony X
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Approximate Amount of Debris in LEO?
Considering the amount of satellites and rockets launched with second stages or other parts floating in space, approximately how many pieces of space debris would there be in low earth orbit (counting broken pieces of the same component–if any–as…
Vivek
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Is it possible to charge space debris with an electrospray thruster?
I have been tasked with finding a way to charge conductive space debris via a cubesat. I have been heavily considering electrospray/colloid thrusters to produce this charge however I am having some difficulty coming up with actual specs to aid in my…
Alexander P
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How Comprehensive is DISCOSweb?
The DISCOSweb API seems to contain a list of all launches as well as significant amounts of tracked debris.
I'm just wondering how conclusive I can consider this dataset to be? Does it contain all tracked debris or just a subset?
ScottishTapWater
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