ElI5: How does anything in space not just get destroyed by high speed objects accelerating through space? How can we have space stations that are not blasted with huge holes from impacts?

Question

ElI5: How does anything in space not just get destroyed by high speed objects accelerating through space? How can we have space stations that are not blasted with huge holes from impacts?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

Because space is pretty empty. Sure, there are a lot of things flying around in space, but there’s also a **lot** of space. The chance that any given satellite is hit by a piece of debris isn’t super high. And larger pieces of debris (that could cause significant damage, like destroying a satellite) are tracked by NASA/other aerospace agencies.