Calculate the average speed of the earth in its orbit in kilometers per second
The most recent National Space Policy (June 28, 2010) contains a section entitled "Preserve the Space Environment" that addresses orbital debris mitigation for both the near term and long term. Since 1988 the official policy of the United States has been to minimize the creation of new orbital debris. Cleaning up the environment remains a technical and economic challenge that is currently being investigated by the United States and other countries. This can be done through prudent vehicle design and operations. The most important action today is to prevent the unnecessary creation of additional orbital debris. No serious injury or significant property damage caused by re-entering debris has been confirmed. During the past 50 years an average of one cataloged, or tracked, piece of debris fell back to Earth each day. Components which do survive are most likely to fall into the oceans or other bodies of water or onto sparsely populated regions like the Canadian Tundra, the Australian Outback, or Siberia in the Russian Federation. Is re-entering debris a risk to people and property on Earth?Ī significant amount of debris does not survive the severe heating which occurs during re-entry. Above 620 miles (1,000 km), orbital debris normally will continue circling Earth for a century or more. At altitudes of 500 miles (800 km), the time for orbital decay is often measured in decades. Debris left in orbits below 370 miles (600 km) normally fall back to Earth within several years. The higher the altitude, the longer the orbital debris will typically remain in Earth orbit. How long will orbital debris remain in Earth orbit? ISS executes a collision avoidance maneuver once a year on average. ISS also can maneuver to avoid tracked objects.
Critical components such as habitable compartments and external high pressure tanks normally will be able to withstand the impact of debris as large as. The International Space Station, or ISS, is the most heavily shielded spacecraft ever flown. How is the International Space Station protected against orbital debris? Consequently, collisions with even a small piece of debris will involve considerable energy. However, the average impact speed of orbital debris with another space object will be approximately 6 miles per second (10 km/s). In low Earth orbit (below 1,250 miles, or 2,000 km), orbital debris circle the Earth at speeds of between 4 and 5 miles per second (7 to 8 km/s). The greatest concentrations of debris are found near 500-530 miles (800-850 km). Within this volume, the amount of debris varies significantly with altitude. Most orbital debris reside within 1,250 miles (2,000 km) of Earth's surface. 4 inches (1 cm) probably exceeds tens of millions.Īre orbital debris uniformly distributed about the Earth? 4 inches and 4 inches (1 to 10 cm) in diameter is approximately 500,000. The estimated population of particles between.
Only about 1,000 of these represent operational spacecraft the rest are orbital debris. More than 22,000 objects larger than 4 inches (10 cm) are currently tracked by the U.S. How much orbital debris is currently in Earth orbit? For that you'd have to be lucky enough to watch a star reappear from behind a tree branch at the same time a meteor streaks across the sky.Orbital debris is any man-made object in orbit about Earth which no longer serves a useful purpose.ĭerelict spacecraft and upper stages of launch vehicles, carriers for multiple payloads, debris intentionally released during spacecraft separation from its launch vehicle or during mission operations, debris created as a result of spacecraft or upper stage explosions or collisions, solid rocket motor effluents, and tiny flecks of paint released by thermal stress or small particle impacts. The ultimate sensation of motion would be to experience rotation and revolution simultaneously. Typically five to eight sporadics per hour are visible after midnight compared to two to four during evening hours. From midnight until dawn we meet most stray meteoroids head-on whereas before midnight most have to catch up with the planet.
The next major meteor shower, the Lyrids, occurs the night of April 21-22 - a long wait! But you can still experience the feeling of zipping through space if you watch for sporadic meteors especially after midnight when the part of the Earth you're living on turns into the direction of planet's motion. The place where you're standing on the Earth turns into the direction of the planet's orbital motion after midnight, when you face head-on into meteoroids waiting to be swept up along the way.