Space Junk(Neg) Matthew Hamilton, Eveready

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Space Junk(Neg)
Table of Contents
1. Effectiveness..........................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Baseball Sized Debris go Unattended ........................................................................................1
1.2 Thrusters Dodge Junk.................................................................................................................1
1.3 Space Junk Might be Counting Operational Spacecraft.............................................................1
1.4 Even 1cm Objects Pierce Satellites ...........................................................................................2
1.5 Junk Has to be Volleyball Size to See........................................................................................2
1.6 Spacecrafts Encounter Sub-Millimeter Impacts.........................................................................2

1. Effectiveness

1.1 Baseball Sized Debris go Unattended

Taking Out the Space Trash, Ker Than, Popular Science, June 27, 2008,
http://www.popsci.com/node/22487

Baseball-size pieces of debris are too small for tethers but large enough to pierce spacecraft. Hitting
them with lasers would disrupt their orbit, causing them to fall and burn up.

1.2 Thrusters Dodge Junk

Dan Michaels, “A Cosmic Question: How to Get Rid Of All That Orbiting Space Junk?” staff reporter
of The Wall Street Journal, has covered aviation and aerospace industries since 1999, published by the
Wall Street Journal, dated 2009, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123672891900989069.html#project
%3DSLIDESHOW08%26s%3DSB123566617343383835%257Csection%253DUS%26articleTabs
%3Darticle, paragraphs reduced

The International Space Station occasionally fires thrusters to dodge junk.

1.3 Space Junk Might be Counting Operational Spacecraft

Taylor Dinerman, "Space debris: not just an American problem?" Author and Journalist for
Forbes.com Inc, Editor, President and Publisher of SpaceEquity.com, a Part-time Consultant for the
US Dept. of Defense, Writer, Columnist, and Space Analyst for The Space Review, November 29, 2004,
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/279/1

There are, in fact, several million kilograms of man-made gear, some of it in the form of operational

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Space Junk(Neg) Matthew Hamilton, Eveready
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satellites and spacecraft, and some of it useless junk.

1.4 Even 1cm Objects Pierce Satellites

Robert Roy Britt, “Space Junk”, Editorial Director of Imaginova, a leading digital media
andcommerce company, senior science writer for space.com, October 19, 2000,
http://www.space.com/spacewatch/space_junk.html

A 1999 study estimated there are some 4 million pounds of space junk in low-Earth orbit, just one part
of a celestial sea of roughly 110,000 objects larger than 1 centimeter -- each big enough to damage a
satellite or space-based telescope.
Some of the objects, baseball-sized and bigger, could threaten the lives of astronauts in a space shuttle
or the International Space Station. As an example of the hazard, a tiny speck of paint from a satellite
once dug a pit in a space shuttle window nearly a quarter-inch wide.

1.5 Junk Has to be Volleyball Size to See

Robert Roy Britt, “Space Junk”, Editorial Director of Imaginova, a leading digital media and
commerce company, senior science writer for space.com, October 19,
2000, http://www.space.com/spacewatch/space_junk.html

The Space Command's electronic eyes can spot a baseball-sized object up to about 600 miles high,
officials say. But at 22,300 miles up, where geostationary satellites roam -- providing weather images
used by forecasters -- an object has to be as big as a volleyball to be seen. These object, moving in
fixed perches with the rotating Earth, may remain in place for centuries, experts say.
And even with more than a dozen of these electronic eyes arrayed around the planet, the agency admits
to not being able to see the entire sky all around the world.

1.6 Spacecrafts Encounter Sub-Millimeter Impacts

The European Space Agency (ESA), “Space debris: assessing the risk”, Europe’s gateway to space,
awarded the prestigious Alexandre Koyré Medal by the International Academy of the History of
Science, for work done in the ESA History Project,March 16, 2005,
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Space_Debris/SEMZL0P256E_0.html

Considering that even a single 10-cm debris collision event could wipe out a multi-million-Euro
spacecraft or hit the (manned) ISS, a risk of even one impact per decade suddenly becomes very
serious.
Destructive collisions do happen.
In 1993, the first servicing mission found a hole over 1 cm in diameter in a high-gain antenna mounted
on the Hubble Space Telescope; a debris object completely penetrated the antenna dish (but the unit
continued working).

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In July 1996, France's Cerise military reconnaissance satellite was struck and severely damaged by,
ironically, a catalogued Ariane upper-stage explosion fragment; a 4.2-metre portion of Cerise's gravity
gradient stabilisation boom was torn off.
As of 2001, Space Shuttle windows had been replaced 80 times due to sub-millimetre object impacts.

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