Close only counts in horseshoes and…
I think that was an expression in the 60′s and 70′s, popular in the US Midwest? Anyone, anyone? “Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.” But in space, “close,” is relative. I’m writing about yesterday’s close encounter with some unidentified “space debris” with the International Space Station. It caused six humans to scramble to the relative safety of some escape pods so that they might survive an impact with an object about the size of a stale bagel in orbit about 230 miles up there above mother earth.
Why all the fuss? Well, here’s the issue: The stale bagel-sized object was traveling at perhaps tens-of-thousands of miles-per-hour, and at that speed an impact could cause a hole about the size of a VW in the International Space Station (ISS).
While most humans here on earth might think of a VW as a very small car, in the vacuum of space a hole the size of a VW could cause a real bad day aboard a pressurized space ship, which the ISS, in fact, is.
So, Mission Control in Houston, Texas declaired an emergency and asked the humans in space to calmly, but quickly, move to the escape pods. I am sure that all of you reading this can relate completely: You are hundreds of miles up above the earth, and you get the equivalent of a phone call to move quickly into your escape pod from the comfort of your home so as not to be sucked out of a gaping hole in your house to be frozen forever in low earth orbit. That can happen to almost anyone, right? Anyone? Anyone? — Ferris?
The humans inside the ISS, by the way, are three Russians, two Americans, one Japanese, just in case you think I am making this up. I am not.
What was the outcome? A VERY close encounter and a miss by about 250 meters (820 feet) of a potential, very real, disaster. What do you think was going on in the video below? What do you think was being said, or being thought, by the brave souls aboard the ISS during their half-hour of “alert for a collision with space debris”?
The ISS will be available for viewing tonight (Wednesday) from San Carlos. It will be better viewing in the next several nights above San Carlos at various times, in various parts of the San Carlos sky. I will be on the beach watching them fly over, because that is what I do. No doubt you would enjoy this, so please join me. I will also describe what is a “débris avoidance maneuver,” and point out other objects of interest in the sky.
Viewing times and my viewing locations are available by request sent by eMail to oceancamp@me.com. Please put ISS in the subject line.
There are more than 20,000 pieces of space debris larger than a softball orbiting the Earth. They travel at speeds up to 17,500 mph, fast enough for a relatively small piece of orbital debris to damage a satellite or a spacecraft. There are 500,000 pieces of debris the size of a marble or larger. There are many millions of pieces of debris that are so small they can’t be tracked.
Even tiny paint flecks can damage a spacecraft when traveling at these velocities. In fact a number of space shuttle windows have been replaced because of damage caused by material that was analyzed and shown to be paint flecks.
“The greatest risk to space missions comes from non-trackable debris,” said Nicholas Johnson, NASA chief scientist for orbital debris.
The video below shows Mission Control during the seconds before “possible impact” (not very interesting actually) — thank God.
