Space Station 'nauts dive for cover from flying Soviet junk The International Space Station's crew sought refuge in the orbiting science lab's lifeboat on Thursday after NASA warned the habitat could be hit by flying satellite debris. Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko and American astronaut Scott Kelly crammed themselves into the Soyuz podule that's attached to …
It's a much smaller target, and can detach in seconds and return to Earth without needing any pre-planning, in the event that the ISS suffered serious damage. In terms of debris proof, it would be practically impossible - there are all sorts of things up there in all sports of orbits that could intersect with huge amounts of energy.
Does space have a one way system
The ISS is not stationary, any object in the same orbit going in the same direction will be going at roughly the same speed and thus presents a low risk, objects going in the opposite direction will have a colossal closing speed but will impact at the "front" of the station so the back can be protected (a bit). Objects in non-equatorial orbits may cross the ISS orbit at an angle but there are fewer of these and have a far lower probability of impact.
DLO, it's much worse than that. There are thousands of bits of debris in intersecting orbits with inclinations ranging from equatorial to polar, and even some retrograde. There is also the issue intersections from debris in highly elliptical orbits such as booster stages.
Basically the ISS could be hit from any direction, front/back/left/right/up/down, so there isn't really a safe place to put the Soyuz, but luckily it is built like and old tank compared to the rest of the station.
Basically the ISS could be hit from any direction
Not from behind, any (unpowered) object in the same orbit will be moving at the same speed, if it's at a different speed it'll either gain or lose altitude until it's in a stable orbit, in extreme cases it'll escape or decay and burn up.
That's not quite right. The ISS is in a roughly circular orbit, but an object in a highly elliptical orbit (just short of escape velocity) could be moving at up to 41% greater velocity if it encountered the ISS whilst at its perigee, even if approaching from behind. And 41% of 11.2km/s (LEO orbital velocity) is enough to do serious damage.
That's not quite right. The ISS is in a roughly circular orbit, but an object in a highly elliptical orbit...
Absolutely correct, however that is a remote possibility while object impacting from the front with a high closing velocity are far more likely to present a problem. Given the low orbit the ISS occupies and the location of most orbital crud (higher than the ISS) by far the safest place to put the escape capsule is at the back of the craft, having at the back also means that pushing it away from the ISS would slow it down a bit so it could make an easier return to the Earth.
was put there going the same way round[1].
What differs is the inclination of the orbits, up to about 90 degrees if you consider polar orbits, but mostly only a few degrees.
[1] Because the delta-V is 2000mph less if you launch with the Earth's rotation from the equator than if you launch against it.
They need lasers and those gyro chairs they have in star wars, it will be entertainments for those long days in space.
Seriously though, I thought that there was a debris capture programme that was supposed to be sorting this issue out ?
At least that's what a news web site reported in 2011, see http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/01/space_debris/
Later in 2015 we were told it exists
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/07/swiss_spaceship_sucks_satellite_scrap/
> they didn't bother going and knocking on the door of the ISS and just lobbed it over the fence.
Or in my case, leaving a highly nickable consignment (booze) out on the front doorstep, in full view of the pavement. Instead of ACTUALLY DOING WHAT THE DELIVERY INSTRUCTIONS (printed on the box) SPECIFIED!
<pant, pant>
Just as well my $BOOZEVENDOR$ is happy to take my word for non-delivery of items.
(Icon describes what should be done to Yodel. Nuking from orbit is the only way to be sure)
Only if it was, in fact, part of an old Soviet craft. Which it is.
Recently the worst offender is the Chinese with their anti-satellite test that cause a huge cloud of debris, largely higher than the ISS orbit. Most Chinese scientists were appalled by it, but of course you do as the leaders tell you.
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