ISS Component Gets Damaged by Space Junk

• A piece of space junk has damaged a part of a robotic arm attached to the International Space Station (ISS).
• The space debris that caused the damage was too small to be tracked, but was traveling fast enough to pierce the arm’s outer metal layer.
• The damage may be minimal, but the incident served as a reminder that space junk could potentially cause bigger damage in the future.

A small piece of space junk hit a robotic arm attached to the International Space Station (ISS), causing damage to its arm boom and thermal blanket.

The damage is only minimal and the component known as Canadarm2 remains operational. The arm aims to complete its current tasks, which includes positioning a robot called Dextre to replace a faulty power switchbox.

According to the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), which designed Canadarm2, the damage was first noticed on May 12 during a routine inspection. The full extent of the damage is yet to be assessed as the CSA works closely with NASA.

While the piece of debris that hit the ISS was too small to be tracked, it traveled fast enough to pierce the arm’s metal outer layer. Such is the case for most of the man-made debris circulating in low-Earth orbit, prompting concerns that space junk can potentially cause catastrophic damage to all future space travel and operations.

The CSA reported that “over 23,000 objects the size of a softball or larger are tracked 24/7 to detect potential collisions with satellites and the ISS.”

The space age, which began with the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957, brought about the increase in man-made space junk.

These space debris are mostly made up of leftover fuel and batteries that exploded on discarded aircraft, the European Space Agency explained. Each year, there are an average of 12.5 events of this nature. This had led to more than 130 million objects clogging up our orbit — which is more than the number of active satellites.

These items fragment and degrade over time, leading to smaller debris that can’t be tracked. But even debris that measure to about a millimeter in size can pierce through satellites and other spacecraft, given the speed at which they travel.

This has prompted more calls for stricter regulations on limiting the amount of space debris.

Source: IFL Science