It's too dangerous! The International Space Station was almost hit again, I have to say that this space junk is too dangerous, once it hits, it may encounter a "chain effect", and even threaten astronauts in space, what is going on?
In fact, this situation is not unexpected, because the Chinese space station has also encountered the same situation.
Therefore, when the mainland Shenzhou 17 manned spacecraft is on a mission, it must be repaired, because the mainland is also threatened by space junk, so let's take a look at the International Space Station first, and then look at the problem of China's space station.
Almost got bumped! Emergency orbit change of the International Space Station
According to a foreign space network, a few hours before the arrival of the cargo spacecraft, the ISS took an emergency orbit change due to the threat of space junk on the ISS.
The Russian space agency has announced the incident, but NASA has not yet made a specific statement, saying that it will confirm the incident.
According to the Russian Space Agency, the ISS rises hundreds of meters when encountering space debris or space junk, and of course, in comparison, the average orbital range of the ISS is still about 400 kilometers.
Therefore, if it is not detected this time, the International Space Station may cause an impact in space, and this time it is also in an emergency situation, and the orbit change is taken, but it is better to avoid it.
Of course, the International Space Station has also been physically impacted, and in 2021, the Canadaarm2 robotic arm of the International Space Station was hit by space debris, which can also be seen in published images. Therefore, this is not the first time that the International Space Station has faced the threat of space junk, and there have been actual collision events.
According to a report released in 2022, the ISS has undergone a total of 37 orbit changes due to the threat of space junk or space debris, and in August 2023, it has also undergone two orbit changes, which can be said to be quite high. And, in addition to the dodging of such larger spacecraft, even small satellites are the same.
In June 2023, SpaceX submitted a report to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) stating that its Starlink broadband satellite performed more than 25,000 evasion maneuvers between December 1, 2022, and May 31, 2023. So, the threat of space junk is already a global thing.
According to human tracking of space junk data, there are about 34,600 pieces of space debris, and at the same time, there may be 130 million pieces in orbit that are too small to be accurately detected or tracked.
However, this is not the only point, as humans continue to launch space vehicles, more and more space junk is appearing.
Therefore, if space junk is not cleaned up in the future, sooner or later the space threat faced by mankind will become greater. More and more spacecraft will be impacted, and even under strong impacts, there may be a knock-on effect.
Not only the ISS, but also the Chinese space station has encountered
That's right, the International Space Station has encountered the threat of space junk, and so has the Chinese space station, which is a practical announcement.
At the press conference of the Shenzhou-17 manned spacecraft, the mainland openly explained that due to the increasing amount of space debris, it is inevitable that long-term spacecraft will be hit by tiny space particles.
Preliminary inspections found that the solar wings of the space station were also repeatedly hit by tiny particles in space, causing minor damage. So, this is not only a problem for the International Space Station, but also for the Chinese space station.
However, the solar wing of the Chinese space station suffered an impact, but fortunately it did not have a major impact.
In the midst of multiple impacts, the functions and performance indicators of China's space station have met the requirements, but from the perspective of long-term operation of the space station and verification of technical capabilities, the Shenzhou-17 astronaut crew will carry out extravehicular experimental maintenance through out-of-cabin activities, which is an extremely challenging work, which will raise the ability and level of extravehicular activities to a new height.
Therefore, it is an undeniable fact that this mission will be a brand-new mission challenge for Shenzhou 17 astronauts Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin. And it is the first time that the mainland has carried out such a mission, and for astronauts, the pressure may also be considerable.
Of course, looking back, I am personally quite sure of the strength of China's aerospace, because China's aerospace is the pursuit of excellence, stable development, etc., so it must be able to complete the task perfectly, which is the general situation.
Isn't there anything humans can do about it?
Indeed, on a global scale, human beings really don't seem to have a good way to clean up space junk, otherwise there would not be such a situation.
Theoretically, there are many most effective ways to deal with space junk, and the main ones are to minimize its quantity - specific solutions include reducing the number of objects launched unrelated to the mission, extending the service life of satellites as much as possible, strengthening the research and development of returnable satellites, enhancing the quality of aircraft, preventing disintegration in orbit, etc.
At the same time, some space junk can be recycled and reused. For example, some usable nuts, bolts and electronic equipment parts can be towed out of Earth orbit by tugboat spacecraft.
It is then disassembled or reassembled for reuse, using nets, harpoons, robot arms and other equipment to grab space junk, recycle and clean it, and carefully inspect some satellites before repairing and updating them to revitalize them and continue to function.
That's how some of them are handled.
Obviously, these methods may not be the best way to deal with space junk on a large scale, so strictly speaking, there is no good way to deal with space junk.
And, over time, space junk will also keep getting more and more, which is the trend. In the process of launching spacecraft in the future, human beings may have such a situation, that is, they will directly shuttle through space junk.
Moreover, if you have any impression, when India launched Chandrayaan-3 this year, in order to avoid the impact of space junk, it directly delayed the launch by 4 seconds, which was the first time that India disclosed it at the International Space Conference.
This also shows that space junk is an important influencing factor for human space exploration in the future, and I don't know if there will be a very good way to clean up space junk in the future.
#爆料#