NASA Deals With Space Debris And Asteroid Threats

Keith’s Note: NASA is increasingly engaged in understanding the threats posed by collision of human-made objects in Earth orbit as well as naturally occurring threats posed by asteroids – as is evidenced by news in last week. More on DART and orbital debris below.

NASA Funds Projects to Study Orbital Debris, Space Sustainability

“As part of NASA’s efforts to address orbital debris, the agency is funding research proposals from three university-based teams over the next year to analyze the economic, social, and policy issues associated with space sustainability. Orbital debris consists of human-made objects orbiting Earth that no longer serve a purpose, including mission-related and fragmentation debris, nonfunctional spacecraft, and abandoned rocket stages.”

Exoatmospheric Detection Of A Meter-sized Earth Impactor, astro-ph.EP

“On 2020 September 18 US Government sensors detected a bolide with peak bolometric magnitude of -19 over the western Pacific. The impact was also detected by the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) instrument on the GOES-17 satellite and infrasound sensors in Hawaii.”

Benchmark To Keep Popular Orbits Safer With Collision Avoidance Kit

“With the most popular, revenue-generating orbits increasingly congested, Benchmark Space Systems today unveiled a breakthrough Collision Avoidance (ColA) Kit, featuring its heritage propulsion technology in a condensed package, that is easily and affordably deployed aboard electric propulsion (EP) and non-propulsive microsatellites and OTVs to help them quickly steer clear of approaching spacecraft and orbital debris.”

DART Team Confirms Orbit of Targeted Asteroid

“Using some of the world’s most powerful telescopes, the DART investigation team last month completed a six-night observation campaign to confirm earlier calculations of the orbit of Dimorphos—DART’s asteroid target—around its larger parent asteroid, Didymos, confirming where the asteroid is expected to be located at the time of impact. DART, which is the world’s first attempt to change the speed and path of an asteroid’s motion in space, tests a method of asteroid deflection that could prove useful if such a need arises in the future for planetary defense.”

DART Sets Sights on Asteroid Target

“NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft recently got its first look at Didymos, the double-asteroid system that includes its target, Dimorphos. On Sept. 26, DART will intentionally crash into Dimorphos, the asteroid moonlet of Didymos. While the asteroid poses no threat to Earth, this is the world’s first test of the kinetic impact technique, using a spacecraft to deflect an asteroid for planetary defense.”