In light of the new James Webb telescope being hit by a micrometeoroid causing damage to the mirrors, how do most space satellites avoid complete destruction from random bits of rock or debris floating in space? Shouldn’t probes like voyager be already completely destroyed by random collisions?
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It’s other kinds of of satelites, I think there’s even a kurztegat video explaining low orbit and how there’s so much debris in it we may trap ourselves on our planet make it a lot harder to use essential satelites. Nit long after that I remember seeing russia and china blowing up satelites. Make all of this alot more nerve wracking because space junk.
They don’t. This is the 5th impact the JT Telescope has taken so far. But it has incredibly fine tuned setup to the point that these, still small, bumps are noticeable in its case. Fortunately it has margin for error and they’re able to work around it.
Space is big. There is lots of room for nothing.
Even asteroid fields are nothing like the movies. They are mostly empty space as well.
But there is always a chance that these space crafts will get hit. The IIS has been hit. They are just playing the odds.
there’s thousands of small and not-so-small particles surrounding our planet.
everything that is above a certain size (I thinkabout half a fist in size or about 5cm diameter) is actually being tracked from the ground here by NASA (and I assume ESA and the other space agencies).
which is crazy, considering thats tens of thousands of pieces of rock/metal/etc that move around our planet at several times the speed of a bullet you fire from a gun.
those particles the satellites actually avoid by changing their course, if they get too close to their trajectory.
smaller particles can and will impact your satellite sooner or later. and they can cause quite some damage. I have seen small (0,5cm diameter) alu “bullets” create craters about 10 times their size when they impacted solid iron blocks. *
fortunately for us, space is kinda large. like really really big. those thousands and tens of thousands of particles? they move around in a space consisting of millions of square KILOMETERS (or square miles if you want).
so the chance that one will hit you is more like once every couple of years.
however it gets more and more filled with trash up there and we’ve both made efforts to protect satellites from these impacts and are looking into ways to remove trash. (eventually it falls towards earth and burns up in the atmosphere but that takes too long for how fast we’re adding new trash)
* I worked at a research institute where they replicated these impacts that occur in space in order to find better shielding options for actual satellites / space stations / etc
Most space debris is in LEO (low earch orbit) just above the atmosphere. The ISS is in this area but makes small orbital adjustments to avoid any debris.
Most communication satellites are at much higher altitudes in a geosynchronous orbit above the equator. Although there is a lot of debris in that orbit due to the advantage of a geocentric orbit, everything is moving in the same direction making it easier.
IIRC Starlink satellites fly in a relatively low orbit to reduce ping times, but the network is designed with multiple redundancy so it still works even if a number of satellites have been destroyed.
>Shouldn’t probes like voyager be already completely destroyed by random collisions?
Space debris is not evenly spread through out the solar system and beyond. As you get closer you are to a large body (planet or moon) the amount of debris increases dramatically.
As Voyager is now a long way from the sun and any planets, there is very little space debris out there, and so the chances of it big hit are vanishingly small. In fact it would of been in orders of magnitude more danger as it passed Saturn than it is now.
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