Photo Courtesy:
NASA
Space Debris Has
Hit And Damaged The International Space Station
The inevitable has
occurred. A piece of space debris too small to be tracked has hit and
damaged part of the International Space Station - namely, the Canadarm2
robotic arm.
The instrument is
still operational, but the object punctured the thermal blanket and damaged
the boom beneath. It's a sobering reminder that the low-Earth orbit's space
junk problem is a ticking time bomb.
Obviously space
agencies around the world are aware of the space debris problem. Over
23,000 pieces are being tracked in low-Earth orbit to help satellites and
the ISS avoid collisions - but they're all about the size of a softball or
larger.
Anything below
that size is too small to track, but travelling at orbital velocities can
still do some significant damage, including punching right through metal
plates.
hubble punch
An impact hole
left in the Hubble Space Telescope antenna in 1997. (NASA)
Canadarm2 -
formally known as the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS),
designed by the Canadian Space Agency - has been a fixture on the space
station for 20 years. It's a multi-jointed titanium robotic arm that can
assist with maneuvering objects outside the ISS, including cargo shuttles,
and performing station maintenance.
It's unclear
exactly when the impact occurred. The damage was first noticed on 12 May,
during a routine inspection. NASA and the CSA worked together to take
detailed images of and assess the damage.
"Despite the
impact, results of the ongoing analysis indicate that the arm's performance
remains unaffected," the CSA wrote in a blog post. "The damage is
limited to a small section of the arm boom and thermal blanket. Canadarm2
is continuing to conduct its planned operations."
Although the ISS
seems to have gotten lucky this time, the space debris problem does seem to
be increasing. Last year, the ISS had to perform emergency maneuvers three
times in order to avoid collisions with space debris at its altitude of
around 400 kilometers (250 miles).
Ever since the
launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957, space debris has been accumulating. According
to a report from the European Space Agency, an estimated 130 million
fragments of anthropogenic material smaller than a millimeter are orbiting
Earth right now. That estimate does not include natural space dust.
"To continue
benefiting from the science, technology and data that operating in space
brings, it is vital that we achieve better compliance with existing space
debris mitigation guidelines in spacecraft design and operations,"
said head of the ESA's Space Debris Office Tim Florer last year.
"It cannot be
stressed enough - this is essential for the sustainable use of space."
Robotics
operations on the ISS using the Canadarm2 will continue as planned for the
near future, the CSA said. But both space agencies will continue to gather
data in order to perform an analysis of the event, both to understand how
it occurred, and to assess future risk.
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