Space Debris: Potential threat for a Lunar mission?

in news •  2 years ago 

"More than 27,000 pieces of orbital debris, or “space junk,” are tracked by the Department of Defense’s global Space Surveillance Network (SSN) sensors. Much more debris -- too small to be tracked, but large enough to threaten human spaceflight and robotic missions -- exists in the near-Earth space environment. Since both the debris and spacecraft are traveling at extremely high speeds (approximately 15,700 mph in low Earth orbit), an impact of even a tiny piece of orbital debris with a spacecraft could create big problems.

The rising population of space debris increases the potential danger to all space vehicles, including to the International Space Station and other spacecraft with humans aboard, such as SpaceX’s Crew Dragon."
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/news/orbital_debris.html

"The amount of trash in Earth orbit, from spent rocket stages, broken satellites and micrometeoroids, is growing. Scientists are working on methods to combat the threat of space junk and orbital debris collisions."
https://www.space.com/topics/space-junk

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