- What is the exact speed of the junk?
- Is the amount of space junk constantly increasing?
- What is the size of the biggest space junk?
- Why must man create space junk in the first place?
- Will space junk float to other galaxies and affect other planets?
- How is space junk created by man?
- Can we clear space junk?
- Can space junk pollute space?
- Are there incidents of space junk deaths?
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1.
ReplyDeleteAbout Orbital Objects
The skies above Earth are teeming with manmade objects large and small. The U.S. Space Surveillance Network uses radar to track more than 13,000 such items that are larger than four inches (ten centimeters). This celestial clutter includes everything from the International Space Station (ISS) and the Hubble Space Telescope to defunct satellites, rocket stages, or nuts and bolts left behind by astronauts. And there are millions of smaller, harder-to-track objects such as flecks of paint and bits of plastic.
Satellites
For half a century, humans have been putting satellites into orbit around Earth to serve a variety of functions. The Soviets launched the first, Sputnik 1, in October of 1957 just to prove they could. Four months later, the U.S. responded with Explorer 1.
Since then, some 2,500 satellites have been sent aloft. These include Hubble and the ISS, the Russian Mir space station, the 27-satellite Global Positioning System, as well as hundreds of others that provide communications, broadcast television and radio signals, and help scientists predict weather, among many other purposes.
These man-made objects circle Earth in orbits that range from as near as 150 miles (240 kilometers) to 22,500 miles (36,200 kilometers) away. Satellites in low-Earth orbit, or LEO, stay within 500 miles (800 kilometers) and travel extremely fast—17,000 miles an hour (27,400 kilometers an hour) or more—to keep from being drawn back into Earth's atmosphere. Most satellites around Earth are found in the LEO range.
Other objects are sent much farther into space and placed in what is called geosynchronous orbit. This allows the satellite to match the Earth's rotation and "hover" over the same spot at all times. Weather and television satellites are generally in this category.
Space Junk
Orbital debris, the technical term for nonfunctional and human-made space junk, includes not only whole, abandoned satellites, but also pieces of broken satellites, deployed rocket bodies, human waste, and other random objects, like the glove lost by astronaut Ed White during his historic 1965 spacewalk. The oldest known piece of orbital debris is the 1958 Vanguard 1 research satellite, which ceased all functions in 1964. One of the newest is a refrigerator-size ammonia reservoir released into its own orbit in July 2007, following a NASA decision that no other disposal options were feasible.
Like satellites, LEO debris whizzes around the planet at 17,000 miles an hour (27,400 kilometers an hour) or more. The orbits of these objects differ in direction, orbital plane, and speed, however—meaning collisions are inevitable. At such speeds, termed hypervelocity, even a miniscule piece of junk presents a serious hazard for satellites, spacecraft, and spacewalking astronauts.
Gravitational pull will ensure that anything we've ever put in orbit will eventually make its way back to Earth. And though thus far no one has ever been killed by reentering space debris, NASA estimates on average one piece returns to Earth each day.
NASA and other national space agencies have identified orbital debris as a serious problem and are currently devising plans to mitigate existing space junk and curb future debris.
Taken from: http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/solar-system/orbital/
This may also answer the other questions.
So there is no exact speed of space junks.
Delete2. Space Debris and Human Spacecraft
ReplyDeleteSeptember 27, 2013
Space debris is tracked as it orbits Earth.
Image Credit:
NASA
More than 500,000 pieces of debris, or “space junk,” are tracked as they orbit the Earth. They all travel at speeds up to 17,500 mph, fast enough for a relatively small piece of orbital debris to damage a satellite or a spacecraft.
The rising population of space debris increases the potential danger to all space vehicles, but especially to the International Space Station, space shuttles and other spacecraft with humans aboard.
NASA takes the threat of collisions with space debris seriously and has a long-standing set of guidelines on how to deal with each potential collision threat. These guidelines, part of a larger body of decision-making aids known as flight rules, specify when the expected proximity of a piece of debris increases the probability of a collision enough that evasive action or other precautions to ensure the safety of the crew are needed.
Taken from: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/news/orbital_debris.html
DeleteSorry if too wordy.
ReplyDelete5.no
ReplyDeleteSpace junk only orbit around the earth
Xavier
1. There is no exact speed
ReplyDelete2. Yes
Adapted from: space.com
3.The biggest piece of space junk is a huge dead satellite, the Envisatt
7. Yes
How can we clear Space Junk then?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete7. Yes
ReplyDeleteHow can we clear Space Junk then?
Delete5. No
ReplyDeleteWhy?!
ReplyDeleteFind out yourself lah
DeleteQuestion on video:
ReplyDeleteHow do they clean small stuff such as a fleck of paint?
Xavier
clean up video
DeleteXavier