SPACE DEBRIS

Problems, Risks Posed, Addressing the Problem,possible solutions

TANVEER SHAIKH

A Greener Planet?• Every year, in almost every country around the world, people do their

part to clean up our Earth.

• Recycling programs are everywhere, and whether our involvement is large or small, we all contribute to help make our home a better place.

• But what about our Earth’s home? Who is looking out for outer space?

WHAT IS SPACE DEBRIS?

Space debris is also called orbital debris, space junk and space waste.

They can include anything from entire used rocket stages and defunctioning satellites to explosion fragments, paint flakes, dust, slag from solid rocket motors, coolant released by RORSAT also known in the west as Radar Ocean Reconnaissance Satellite,nuclear powered satellites, deliberate insertion of small needles, and other small particles from equipment.

Why is this bad?• “Sandblasting” or erosive damage,

can occur on objects that are both being used and unused when they come into contact with clouds of very small particles in space.

• Collisions can be highly damaging to functioning satellites due to the extremely high orbital velocities at which this “junk” travels. Some debris has been recorded moving along at 17,500 mph! Collisions are also known to produce even more space debris.

Much About Space Debris

22000 pieces of space junk in space.

Pieces of 4 inches or longer combined weigh 5500 tons

Solar flare-ups can cause space junk

Every 11 years Flare-ups turn communication satellites into space junk

BEFORE….. AFTER

Space is Running Out in Space

• Space is more and more crowded resulting in collisions between spacecraft, satellites and junk.

• Need air traffic control

• May take a major collision to get countries to work on this

Unplanned Spacewalk to Target Solar-Panel Problem

• Astronauts working on equipment run risk of getting hit by space junk

• Spacesuit could get pierced and lose air.

• Spacewalks last from 5-7 hours…making risks great

Much Ado About Space Debris

• 50 years ago: no space junk• Now: 25,000 pieces to the size of baseball or larger• 10,000 have re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere• Most space junk burns on the way to Earth• Junk is potentially harmful if it doesn’t burn before hitting the

Earth• Junk could hit spacecraft

What Was that Light in the Sky?

• One night an eye-catching flashed across the night sky

• Fireball

• NORAD tracks pieces of space junk including screwdrivers and astronaut gloves. They determined that it was not space junk

Litter Kings

• U.S. produced 3,176 pieces of space junk that are in orbit

• Russia produced 2,917 pieces• China has produced 1,822 pieces• 85% of new junk will orbit 100 years laterSpent

Rocket boosters are difficult to eliminate

• Soviet Space Station junk from cosmonauts could have been stopped.

Several countries have caused space junk

One Giant Skip for Mankind

• Space travel has turned the universe into a dump

• Junk increasing

• Many sources

Possible Solutions

•Alternate Orbit: Sometimes it would require too much fuel to de-orbit a satellite from its path. In these cases, it can also be brought to an orbit where atmospheric drag would cause it to de-orbit after some years.

• This has been done! The French Spot-1 satellite, brought its time to atmospheric reentry down from an estimated 200 years to about 15 years.

MORE SOLUTIONS

• When a satellite has completed its task, it could be brought back down to Earth where it could be properly disposed of and/or recycled.

• This could be done with the use of a "terminator tether," also called an “electro-dynamic tether” that is rolled out, and slows down the spacecraft.

ACTIVE DEBRIS REMOVAL TECHNIQUES

This kind of Roger use throw-nets to capture its target, and it has 20 nets.

ACTIVE DEBRIS REMOVAL TECHNIQUES

It uses tentacles to capture targets. If there is an incapacitated SATELLITE the ROGER spacecraft will approach the malfunctioning satellite with its

boom and deploy IT.

The satellite will be captured by the fingers and then towed away .

Electrodynamic tethers project

• HOW IT WORKS.

The technical challenges

• the ability to safely capture a target

• the number of target satellites within a multiple target mission is limited

• control both the ROGER satellite and the tandem "ROGER plus target satellite"

• the supervision, control and eventually tele-manipulation of ROGER from ground

The number of space debris increases very quickly .

CONCLUSION• Is space debris just another over hyped

scientific issue, or could this really become a larger problem in the future?

• Should we leave it all up there, or take the time and money to bring it down?

• THESE ARE THE QUESTIONS WE NEED TO ASK OURSELVES & START CLEANING IT.

Refrence: http://www.nasa.gov/http://www.space.com/spacewatch/space_junk.htm

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