This paper explains recent findings on man-made debris in space, including several examples of damage known to be caused by debris, such as the damage to the Hubble Space Telescope and the loss of the Tethered Satellite System. The paper summarizes the main causes of debris and what can be done about them. It outlines what various space agencies have done to minimize the problem, as well as what is planned for the future to protect our Outer Space interests from harm. The National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA)'s Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) sustained over 32,000 impacts during the six years it was in space, showing that there was much more debris up there than previously thought. Detailed cataloguing revealed that over half of the damage was from man-made objects. The United Nations (UN) and The International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (INTELSAT), as well as many countries, maintain registries of objects launched into space, and have guidelines for their disposal. NASA's statistical analysis showed that the part of the shuttle most vulnerable to damage from debris was not the windows, as thought, but the two freon-filled radiator loops. If they were disabled, the shuttle would be forced to land within a day. NASA's Space Surveillance Network (SSN) can only reliably track objects at least 10 cm. across, but most damage is from debris much smaller than that. Most space debris appears to be the remains of explosions caused by stored propellants and pressurants or because of open electrical circuits and batteries. It has been shown that shutting down all power systems, discharging all batteries, and insulating all pyrotechnics can prevent explosions from occurring. All components of the spacecraft should be tethered to it or contained in some way. Another solution is to send spacecraft into orbits further away from Earth.


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    Title :

    Space Debris in Low-Earth Orbit


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    Sixth ASCE Specialty Conference and Exposition on Engineering, Construction, and Operations in Space ; 1998 ; Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States


    Published in:

    Space 98 ; 804-808


    Publication date :

    1998-04-21




    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




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