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3872 - RUSSIAN
SATELLITE DEBRIS - a ring of junk! Februay 8, 2022, a Russian satellite has broken into pieces,
littering debris in space. A Russian KOSMOS 2499 satellite broke up last
month, for a second time. The Space
Force said they are currently tracking 85 individual pieces of debris at an
altitude of 726 miles. The breakup
occurred on January 4, 2023, but the reason for the disintegration remains
unknown.
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3872 - RUSSIAN
SATELLITE DEBRIS - a ring of junk!
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- At this
high altitude of 726 miles, it will take decades for the debris to deorbit and
burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere, and presence of this debris in an
increasingly busy region in Earth orbit.
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- This is the
second breakup event of Kosmos 2499. The first fragmentation occurred on
October 23, 2021. That event created 22 pieces of trackable debris.
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- Russia
quietly launched KOSMOS 2499 on May 23, 2014. But tracking indicated the
satellite performed unusual maneuvers, leading some to speculate that it may be
an experimental anti-satellite weapon, satellite maintenance vehicle, or
collector of space debris.
-
- Moscow
website indicated the satellite was designed to test experimental plasma
propulsion engines/ion thrusters. Both
the first and now second breakup event was thought to be caused by an explosion
of that propulsion system.
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- LeoLabs,
Inc., a commercial provider of low Earth orbit mapping and tracking also
tweeted about the current situation, saying that their analysis points toward a
low intensity explosion, due to the asymmetry of the debris cloud, magnitude of
the velocity imparted to the fragments, and a known energetic source on board.
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- LeoLabs
said another identical spacecraft, Kosmos 2491, exploded in 2020, and that
event has been attributed to an explosion of the propulsion system.
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- This event
follows a recent close call where two pieces of leftover Soviet-era space junk
passed within feet of each other on January 27, 2023. A piece of a rocket stage
came as close as 19.7 feet from a
defunct satellite at an altitude of 611 miles above Earth’s surface.
-
- The Space
Force is currently tracking 85 individual pieces of the Kosmos debris at an
altitude of 726 miles. At this high altitude, it will take decades
for the debris to deorbit and burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere, and presence
of this debris in an increasingly busy region in Earth orbit.
-
- This
satellite has had a curious history. Russia quietly launched KOSMOS 2499 on May
23, 2014. But tracking indicated the satellite performed unusual maneuvers,
leading some to speculate that it may be an experimental anti-satellite weapon,
satellite maintenance vehicle, or collector of space debris.
-
- Both the
first and now second breakup event was thought to be caused by an explosion of
that propulsion system. LeoLabs, Inc., a commercial provider of low Earth orbit
mapping and tracking also tweeted about the current situation, saying that
their analysis points toward a low intensity explosion, due to the asymmetry of
the debris cloud, magnitude of the velocity imparted to the fragments, and a
known energetic source on board.
-
- LeoLabs
said another identical spacecraft, Kosmos 2491, exploded in 2020, and that
event has been attributed to an explosion of the propulsion system. This event follows a recent close call where
two pieces of leftover Soviet-era space junk passed within feet of each other
on January 27, 2023. A piece of a rocket stage came as close as 19.7 feet from
a defunct satellite at an altitude of 611 miles above Earth’s surface.
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- Sierra Space
tests another inflatable Space Station module … to destruction. The commercial space company conducted a new
duration test called an Accelerated Systematic Creep Test for their LIFE
Habitat (Large Integrated Flexible Environment), putting a 1/3 size scale model
of the space module under gradually increasing excess pressure until it failed.
The habitat burst after more than 150 hours of constant pressure, exceeding
NASA’s certification target of 100 hours.
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- Sierra
Space said the results of the test indicate that the test article exceeded the
pressure shell on orbit lifetime performance requirement of 15 years with
margin. That means astronauts could live and work in a full-size version of the
inflatable habitat for up to 60 years in space.
-
- Sierra
Space says the development of their ‘softgoods’ inflatable habitat technology
is a key step in facilitating extended human missions to low-Earth orbit, the
Moon and Mars. Sierra Space is a a subsidiary of Sierra Nevada Corporation.
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- LIFE
Habitat represents the essential technology developments needed to one day
enable humans to live and work in space.
Habitat units are a key element in Sierra Space’s platform in space.
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- Previously,
the LIFE Habitats were put under a different kind of stress test called an
Ultimate Burst Pressure (UBP). Two of those test were conducted in July and
November of 2022, and scale models of the modules were pressurized with
increasing loads until they burst.
-
- Engineers
filled the modules with gaseous nitrogen to test how strong the inflatable
high-strength softgoods materials are, with the goal of climbing past 182.4 PSI
(pounds per square inch) which is NASA’s thresholds for certification for
pressurized modules. The first test exceeded that mark, bursting at 192 PSI.
The November test held pressure until 204 PSI.
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- The new
test was conducted at Marshall Space Flight Center, and NASA designed a
disposable building in which the test was performed to protect the module from
weather during the test . Thank goodness the structure was disposable, because
the whole thing exploded.
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- Creep
tests have been a standard model of testing for space hardware. In the Apollo
days, creep tests were routinely conducted for pressure vessels and fuel tanks.
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- The
full-size version inflates to a three-story commercial habitation and science
platform that is 27 feet in diameter and 27 feet long, with 300 cubic meters of
space, or about 1/3 of the pressurized volume on the International Space
Station. LIFE can house a crew of 4 to12.
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- The
module’s softgoods are made of sewn and woven fabrics – primarily Vectran that
become rigid structures when pressurized.
Sierra Space said the weave they use is stronger than steel and tough
enough to withstand the required internal pressure. The softgoods outer layers
.are composed of a series of materials designed for orbital debris and thermal
protection.
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- NASA
captured this image of a mysterious black object orbiting the Earth in 1998,
during the first Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station
(ISS).
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- In 1960,
TIME published a story noting that the U.S. Navy had detected an unidentified
satellite that may have been a piece of Soviet spy technology. It turned out to
be a broken-off piece of the Discoverer 5—an early U.S. photo reconnaissance
(spy) satellite.
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- While NASA
and other space organizations keep catalogs of the space debris that they
encounter, these lists are still incomplete and dependent on nations sharing
sometimes sensitive data.
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- There’s the
possibility that Earth could eventually have its own ring system—made up
entirely of space junk in the “graveyard orbit,” about 190 miles above most
working satellites.
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February 11, 2023 RUSSIAN SATELLITE
DEBRIS 3872
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------ “Jim Detrick” -----------
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--- Sunday, February 12, 2023 ---------------------------
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