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From: dbm@icarus.jsc.nasa.gov (Brad Mears)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: space junk and shuttle
Message-ID: <1991Apr26.181450.24863@aio.jsc.nasa.gov>
Date: 26 Apr 91 18:14:50 GMT
References: <1880@eastman.UUCP>
Sender: dbm@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov (Brad Mears)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Barrios Technology @ NASA/JSC; Houston
Lines: 23

In article <1880@eastman.UUCP>, harding%b56vxg.dnet@kodak.com (JON HARDING) writes:
|> I have read that there is a lot of stuff floating around up there.
|> So... Do the shuttle pilots/ground staff have to steer around this junk?
|> Is the junk spread out over such a wide area, (3D), that the probability
|> of collision is negligible?  If not, how do they avoid old junk or KH-12s?

Correct, there is a LOT of junk in LEO.  NORAD tracks several thousand (?) items
as small as a baseball.  These are allowed for in flight designs.  Unfortunately,
the zillions of items which are too small to track pose a serious problem.
In fact, the shuttle has been struck more than once by small pieces of debris.
One of them even put a small crater in a cockpit window.  That piece was
apparently 1 or 2 millimeters across.  If they hit one the size of a marble, it
will be a serious problem.

-- 
Brad Mears
dbm@icarus.jsc.nasa.gov

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