ESA's Debie-2 delivers orbital debris data

Debie-2 (DEBris In Orbit Evaluator – 2) and it's perch on the European Technology Exposure Facility (EuTEF)

Speeding along in orbit at more than seven kilometers per second, the International Space Station has its surfaces carefully shielded against potentially catastrophic collisions with micrometeoroids or man-made debris. Except that is for a trio of unprotected panels until recently attached to external payload platform of ESA’s Columbus module, specifically intended to sustain impacts from tiny specks of space dust.

Each pointing in a different direction – forward in the direction of orbit, upwards and sideways out to space - the three 10 by 10 cm aluminum foil panels formed the sensor units of an instrument called the DEBris In-orbit Evaluator-2 (DEBIE-2), returning telemetry on impact events to a separate data processing unit.

These units were sited on the European Technology Exposure Facility (EuTEF) which was mounted on the Columbus exterior until returned to Earth on the Space Shuttle this week. Columbus is an ideal position for impact monitoring since the module forms part of the leading edge of the International Space Station (ISS).

There are around 13 000 cataloged pieces of orbital debris larger than 10 cm across. These are big enough to be tracked by terrestrial radar so the ISS, the Shuttle and other satellites can manoeuvre out of their path. In addition there are many millions more items too small to be monitored from the ground. Traditionally most of what is known about these orbital populations has come from simply examining space hardware returned to Earth and counting the number and size of impact craters they have sustained while in orbit.

However the DEBIE system actively measures impact energies and velocities as strikes occur. Possessing only a limited detection area – three times 100 cm2 – the instrument is designed around impacts from particles around a micrometre (a thousandth of a millimeter) in size, the type of debris about which least is known.

Around the same size as smoke particles, they may be tiny but their effect is still dramatic: impacting at hypersonic velocities, they briefly heat the aluminum foil locally to thousands of degrees Kelvin, hotter than the surface of the Sun.

Rread the ESA review HERE.

Protecting satellites a priority

Amy Butler
Aviation Week

Protecting satellites in orbit and international cooperation appear to be among the key issues under consideration in space policy reviews underway at the Pentagon and White House.

An emphasis on both of these areas is stemming from an increasingly widespread recognition in government that space is essential to all facets of U.S. military, industrial and economic might and that U.S. satellites are threatened by potential adversaries.

China’s 2007 shootdown of one of its own aging satellites had a “galvanizing effect” on government officials, says David Ochmanek, a deputy assistant secretary of Defense at the center of the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). Some had taken for granted that space services such as communications and reconnaissance were safe. The QDR is focusing on resources needed for future conflicts, and will wrap up this fall.

The Pentagon’s Space Posture Review (SPR) began this spring and could continue to year’s end. It is a sweeping look at strategies for operating in space—from deterring nations from conducting dangerous or provocative acts there, to appropriate responses for hostile meddling or an attack. The National Security Council is leading the White House review, and it will provide overarching policy for civil and military space.

Read the Article HERE.

NORAD to Calgary: Watch out for space debris

Interesting story from Saturday morning on NORAD's early warning to Canada: 10 square meter chunk of Russian Progress detritus "heading your way..."
* Not to be confused with Cosmos-Iridium incident...

CTV.ca News Staff

It was enough of a concern that the North American Aerospace Defense Command -- better known as NORAD -- called the Canadian government to let them know that a piece of space debris was headed towards Calgary.

And the debris was big: a piece of an unmanned Russian rocket, 10 square metres in size.

The rocket had blasted off from Kazakhstan on Tuesday and carried materials for the International Space Station. And when it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, things got a little scary for the province of Alberta.

Read the story HERE.

Debris from Progress falls over Texas

Blossom of Space Debris see
When Satellites Collide

John Bumgardner

KEYE TV (Austin) has received several calls of fireballs falling from the sky. Eye-witnesses say the event began around 11:00p.m. Central time.

Officials at the Austin airport say they have received several calls as well, including operators from 9-11 inquiring about the incident but they have no confirmed reports of falling debris or impact areas.

There have been no confirmed reports of anything falling according to the Travis County Sheriff’s Office, whatever it is may have burned up in the atmosphere.

KEYE TV viewer Steve Thornton says, “I saw something burn up in the atmosphere going east to west at 40 degrees in the horizon looking north. There was no smoke trail. It was about the size of a half moon and as bright as a welders torch”

KEYETV.com reader Max Lyon witnessed the fireball and says it was “a bright glowing egg-shape with an orange center and bluish outer aura; a silvery-white tail. The tail was intact for several seconds, then became segmented. The single object became several objects during incineration. A white trail remained visible for up to 10 minutes, slowly widening and distorting with the movement of upper level wind currents.”

The FAA office in Austin says they are certain it was not an aircraft and there are reports as far as the Fort Worth airspace being affected. According to the FAA more than likely it was debris falling from the atmosphere. They also tell KEYE TV there are reports of fallen debris on the ground north of the Austin area but that has not yet been confirmed.

Officials in Williamson County say there have been reports of the debris falling from Austin to Dallas. Public Information officer John Foster with Williamson County says he has been told it may have been pieces of a satellite that crashed last week.

Two communications satellites crashed into each other last Tuesday for the first-ever collision of two intact spacecraft in orbit some 500 miles over Siberia causing a huge debris cloud, according to NASA.

The two communication satellites consisted of a n Iridium commercial satellite launched in 1997 and a Russian satellite launched in 1993. Neither of them was working. The satellites weighed around 1,000 pounds each.

HT to http://twitter.com/jimmynewland via Bad Astronomer

AGI simulation of Cosmos-Iridium debris spread

HT AstroENGINE.com for delivering the goods, including a link to AGI software simulation in Hi-Def of the predicted orbital debris field in the immediate aftermath of the collision of Cosmos 2251 and Iridium 33 over Siberia, Tuesday.

AGI animation HERE.

When Satellites Collide

Fated as metaphors for the debris cluttering up low earth orbit, a second-hand Motorola-built Iridum satellite and a "defunct" Russian Cosmos have collided over Siberia, resulting in a cloud of fast-moving wreckage.

It will take days to track and categorize each separate orbital path taken by every fragment from each of the spacecraft to determine their affect, if any, on the track of hundreds of other vehicles, including the International Space Station.

"They collided at an altitude of 790 kilometers (491 miles) over northern Siberia Tuesday about noon Washington time," said Nicholas Johnson, NASA's chief scientist for orbital debris at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "The U.S. space surveillance network detected a large number of debris from both objects."

Air Force Brig. Gen. Michael Carey, deputy director of global operations with U.S. Strategic Command, the agency responsible for space surveillance, said initial radar tracking detected some 600 pieces of debris. He identified the Russian spacecraft as Cosmos 2251, a communications relay station launched in June 1993, and said the satellite is believed to have been non-operational for the past 10 years or so.

"As of about 12 hours ago, I think the head count was up (to around) 600 pieces," Carey told CBS News late today. "It's going to take about two days before we get a solid picture of what the debris fields look like. But you, I think, can imply that the majority of that should be probably along the same line as the original orbits."

He said U.S. STRATCOM routinely tracks about 18,000 objects in space, including satellites and debris, that are 3.9 inches across or larger. Tracking priority and "conjunction analysis"--identifying which objects may pose a threat to manned spacecraft--is the first priority.

"It's going to take a while" to get an accurate count of the debris fragments, Johnson said. "It's very, very difficult to discriminate all those objects when they're really close together. And so, over the next couple of days, we'll have a much better understanding."

Photo of Iridium "flare" tracked by Heavens-Above.com