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A few decades ago, the infinite around Earth was empty. It'due south very much not empty anymore with a multitude of satellites and an operational International Space Station. The infinite effectually Earth is also dwelling house to many years worth of abandoned satellites, rocket boosters, and other bits of debris flying around at incredible speeds. All that space junk has become an increasingly serious problem, as fifty-fifty a small impact can completely destroy a working satellite or spacecraft. Now, NASA is using the ISS to gather more data on the behavior of space droppings in hopes of developing better defenses.

NASA and other infinite agencies keep tabs on larger pieces of space junk that are a few centimeters to a few meters in size. An bear on with i of these would be catastrophic, and there's not much we can practise most that. The coiffure of the International Space Station (ISS) has even had to have cover in the station's Soyuz escape pod a few times when there was a threat of touch. However, at that place many smaller piece of debris — like paint chips, small screws, and tiny meteorites — that are harder to rails. These are between 50 micrometers and 1 millimeter in size. The effect of those impacts is what NASA wants to study with the Space Debris Sensor (SDS).

NASA delivered the SDS to the station earlier this yr, and it'south now installed on an external payload site that faces the station's vector of velocity. It's an bear on sensor, so the goal is to brand sure anything that hits the SDS has as much relative velocity as possible. The SDS is near 1 meter square (a petty over 10 square feet) in size. The surface is a thin layer of Kapton, a polyimide film that remains stable across a broad range of temperatures. Beneath that is a separate layer of Kapton, this one with embedded audio-visual sensors and a filigree of resistive wires. The top 2 layers are in that location to be punctured, but backside the Kapton is backstop with additional sensors.

When a piece of space junk hits the surface of the SDS, the audio-visual sensor registers the time and location of a penetrating bear on. The resistive grid can judge the size of the impactor from changes to the resistance of the wires. Those backstop sensors measure the size of the pigsty in the upper Kapton layers to piece of work out the velocity at which the object struck the surface. Based on this information, researchers should be able to tell if the impactor was a natural bit of space grit or a piece of some long-forgotten space mission. Data will be related to scientists on the ground, where hypervelocity tests can exist carried out under controlled conditions.

The SDS project volition better safe on the ISS as well as other manned missions. We just don't know enough about the effects of small impactors, but the SDS could assistance in the pattern of new condom procedures and even new materials that tin can survive a micro-impact.