Meteoroids put dents in Shuttle windows much like bouncing gravel puts dents in your car's windshield. However, meteoroids move at such high speeds that they can partly vaporize the surfaces they strike! A dust particle (smaller than a meteoroid) hit the STEREO spacecraft and produced this fountain of smaller particles. When a meteoroid breaks up, its "shrapnel" can also be dangerous. Even when meteoroids don't damage a spacecraft, they can cause problems. Here, a small meteoroid bumped a camera on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), causing wiggles in this scan of the lunar surface. Meteoroids and pieces of space junk create rough edges on the outside of the Space Station that can damage space suits. The astronauts' gloves had to be thickened to help prevent them from ripping.
Meteoroids are Dangerous to Spacecraft
NASA in the Park ; 2017 ; Huntsville, AL, United States
2017-06-17
Miscellaneous
No indication
English
Meteoroids and Orbital Debris: Effects on Spacecraft
NTIS | 1997
|Meteoroids and Orbital Debris: Effects on Spacecraft
NTRS | 1997
|PENETRATION OF SPACECRAFT BY LUNAR SECONDARY METEOROIDS
AIAA | 1963
|Meteoroids and Meteor Storms: A Threat to Spacecraft
NTRS | 1999
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