Post by MCDemuth on Apr 2, 2019 8:16:16 GMT
India's Anti-Satellite Test Created Dangerous Debris, NASA Chief Says
And it sets a risky precedent.
NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said today (April 1) that India's recent anti-satellite test created 60 pieces of orbital debris big enough to track, 24 of which rise higher than the International Space Station's orbit around Earth.
Bridenstine had harsh words to say about India's test today in a NASA town hall meeting, saying that causing this type of risk to humans in space, and low Earth orbit operations, was unacceptable.
"That is a terrible, terrible thing, to create an event that sends debris in an apogee that goes above the International Space Station," Bridenstine said at the town hall meeting, which was livestreamed on NASA TV. "And that kind of activity is not compatible with the future of human spaceflight that we need to see happen."
Bridenstine said that NASA has identified 400 pieces of orbital debris from the event, including the 60 greater than 10 centimeters in diameter that the agency can track and 24 that travel through the space station's orbital height. As of last week, the agency, along with the Combined Space Operations Center (part of U.S. Strategic Command), had estimated that the risk to the International Space Station of small-debris impact had risen by 44 percent over a period of 10 days.
"Debris ends up being there for a long time; if we wreck space, we're not getting it back," he said at the time. "And it's also important to note that creating debris fields intentionally is wrong … the entire world [has to] step up and say, if you're going to do this, you're going to pay a consequence — and right now that consequence is not being paid."
Read More Here:
www.space.com/nasa-chief-condemns-india-anti-satellite-test.html
In the Movie: "Gravity" (2013)...
During a spacewalk, Mission Control in Houston warns Explorer's crew about a Russian missile strike on a defunct satellite, which has inadvertently caused a chain reaction forming a rapidly-expanding cloud of space debris,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_(2013_film)
...the high-speed debris cloud, destroyed everything it encountered, including the Space Shuttle, The Hubble Telescope, The ISS, and the Chinese Tiangong space station...
I think it would be safe to assume that Weather and Communication satellites were also at risk at being destroyed by the the high-speed debris cloud, as well... And it could possibly even destroy the entire satellite "network", in Earth's orbit!
Although the movie does not address, Earth's future of Space Operations... The nature of the debris cloud depicted in the movie, does seem to suggest that, at least in the short term, anything that would be sent up into orbit, would most likely be destroyed in a very short amount of time, as well...
After seeing the movie, I had wondered if this could be a real possible danger... and now with India's recent anti-satellite test, it does seem as though, what was depicted in the movie, COULD ACTUALLY BE A REAL DANGER!
Could a "rapidly-expanding cloud of space debris" actually be created, that could destroy our entire satellite "network"?
Could that mean, that our Communications Networks & Weather Forecasting industries, might be thrust back into the "Stone Age", circa 1940s?
And what would that mean for our future?... Would we EVER be able clear the debris from orbit to make it safe again, to launch satellites back into orbit, as well as manned tech for space operations & exploration?
