Saturday, February 03, 2007
Chinese Satellite Debris Does Pose a Threat to the ISS
Image Credit: STK-generated image courtesy of CSSI.On 11 January the Chinese blasted one of their old weather satellites with an anti-satellite weapon. This was pretty big news, my local rag, not noted for science coverage, devoted two whole pages to the event. At the time, NASA calimed the debris cloud from the test would not affect the ISS. Around 500 trackable pieces of debris were produced from the demolition of the satellite. A new analysis of their orbits, performed by Dr. Thomas Kelso of the Center for Space Standards and Innovation, suggests that the ISS is indeed in danger. The report shows that the ISS passes throgh the ring of debris on the southern part of its orbit. High resolution graphics and animations can be found here.
Other Low Earth Orbit satellites arre in danger too. There is a tool on the anaylsis site for checking close passes (type in FENGYUN 1C DEB), and the number of debris satellite interactions is very scary.
# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 2:25 pm 
Click to read about or order
Click to read about or order
Click to read about or order
Click to read about or order
