Russian satellite breakup sends ISS astronauts to shelter
On Wednesday, June 26, 2024, shortly after 9 p.m. EDT, NASA instructed the nine astronauts aboard the International Space Station to head to their shelters. This precautionary measure was in response to the breakup of a Russian satellite, RESURS-P1. The astronauts spent about an hour in their shelters before it became clear the space station was not in the path of the debris.
More on RESURS-P1
According to Leo Labs, a California company that provides collision avoidance service and real-time conjunction alerts for satellite operators:
The approximately 6,000 kg [13,000 lb] satellite was in a nearly circular orbit at about 355 km [220 miles up] at the time of the event.
While it is not yet clear what caused the breakup of the Russian satellite, the satellite ended its service back in 2021. So what was previously one defunct space object is now more than 100 pieces. With the increasing amounts of satellites, both operational and past their useful lives, accumulating in orbit, the crowded space around Earth is becoming more and more of a concern. According to the Orbiting Now website, there are currently more than 10,000 active satellites in orbit around Earth, with nearly 3,000 inactive satellites still in orbit.
I mean... I hate what the fucker is doing to Ukraine.
But Russians have their spot in history in terms of great space exploration advancements.
They had a space station up there first. Before everyone else. The MIR. So.... I wouldn't doubt on their capability to put their own space station again.
What ever happened to that Swiss space junk net? I feel like we could just go around and hoover up all the Russian satellites they seem to be using for target practice.
From the little I've followed on this topic, any kind of kinetic space junk cleanup (meaning physically touching or capturing the junk) is going to be very very limited in effectiveness for the majority of the junk. For really large things, like an entire satellite still intact, it can make sense, but these are very few of the space junk pieces in orbit today.
The problem is two fold: Space is huge and the junk is very far apart. There are hundreds of thousands of pieces of space junk (mostly small).
The most promising approach to address the majority of the junk is a "directed energy" method. This would be using something like a laser to slightly push space junk into lower orbits where the thin air will slow it over time and it would fall back to Earth.
A laser? Mount it on ISS and expand the solar panels and install a battery/capacitor. It might be slow.. but for the smaller stuff burning it up might work, or not?
