Orbital Debris facts

While investigating facts about Orbital Debris Quarterly News and Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices, I found out little known, but curios details like:

In 2007 China tested a missile and shot down one of their own satellites, accidentally creating 2,087 pieces of space debris on crazy orbits, all of which are now required to be tracked to avoid space collisions

how to clean up orbital debris?

There are more than 500,000 pieces of debris floating or orbiting around Earth now. Most of them originated as parts of satellites and rockets.

What is orbital debris?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what would the solutions to orbital debris be. Here are 23 of the best facts about Orbital Debris Tracking and Orbital Debris Map I managed to collect.

what is the primary mission of the orbital debris observatory?

1. Skylab, the first U.S. space station, cost $2.2 billion but was occupied for only 6 months of its 6 years in orbit. It was damaged during launch and eventually fell to Earth on July 11, 1979. The debris fell on western Australia, and the Shire of Esperance fined NASA A$400 for littering.

2. The US and Russian sections of the International Space Station use different shields to protect against orbital debris, and if the station is under threat, the crew all move to the Russian section because it is considered to be better protected.

3. Scientists are working on plans to equip the International Space Station with a laser cannon to zap space debris in an effort to clean up the 3,000 tons of discarded satellites and other garbage in orbit

4. On a gated road past the summit of Haleakala Mountain is the Haleakala Observatory. This is where satellites and other debris that orbits the earth are tracked as part of the Maui Space Surveillance System.

5. The United States launched 480 million needles into orbit during the cold war in an attempt to create an artificial ionosphere to counter Soviet sabotage of communications. Some clumps are still in orbit and are a contributor to space debris

6. The Large Zenith Telescope (LZT) was made from parts that had been used in the three meter diameter telescope from NASA Orbital Debris Observatory.

7. Approximately 1/3 of all tracked space debris orbiting earth comes from the breakup of just 2 satellites.

8. The number of orbiting debris particles smaller than 1 cm around the earth exceeds 100 million.

9. The US owns the title of dirtiest country in space for now, and just by a hair. Russia has 3,961 pieces of detectable space debris compared to the 3,999 pieces of trackable space trash in orbit created by American activity.

10. Two intact satellites have collided in orbit at roughly a relative speed of 35,000 km/h, creating a large debris field

Orbital Debris data charts

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Why is there orbital debris?

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Altough satellites have been orbiting earth since 1957 and thousands of satellites are orbiting earth right now, the first collision ever happened in 2009. The debris of the two satellites is still in orbit and a threat to spacecraft, forcing even an avoidance maneuver of the ISS in 2011.

Vesta was impacted 1 and 2 billion years ago and the debris is still in orbit around the sun and raining down on Earth to this day - source

The telescopic device "SPHERE" is capable of capturing direct, very high contrast images of exoplanets (in comparison to NACO's 2004 image). Its first use (2014) revealed a stunning ring of debris in an offset orbit, attributed to the presence of planets, around the young star HR 4796A. - source

In 1961 the US created an artificial ionosphere above Earth to protect satellite communications by using needles, and several million needles still orbit earth as space debris

Project West Ford, a US government project to create an artificial ionosphere by launching millions of needles into the atmosphere in 1960-63, subsequently creating a substantial amount of orbital debris. - source

When a planet in its orbit is closer to the sun it?

In 1963 USA put 480,000,000 copper needles into orbit to test communication techniques. Some still remain as orbital debris

How to remove orbital debris?

Space trash (space debris) is past the tipping point according to NASA and that in the next decade it will be near impossible to leave our orbit, let alone travel to Mars.

There is a growing barrier of high-speed debris orbiting around the earth that will eventually make space travel impossible, and possibly end the era of satellite connections.

As of 2016, the USSC tracked a total of 17,852 objects in orbit above the Earth. However, as of 2013, more than 170 million bits smaller than 1 cm, about 670,000 bits 1–10 cm, and around 29,000 larger debris were in orbit.As of Dec. 2016, 5 collisions resulted in space waste.

There are hundreds of thousands of orbital debris or "space junk" circling our planet and being tracked

In 1993, a marketing company proposed putting a 1-square-kilometer billboard in Low Earth orbit. The ad would have been roughly the same relative size and brightness as the moon - and would have been impacted by space debris more than 10,000 times per day.