Jakarta –
Space junk too small to track crashing International Space Station (ISS). This incident caused a hole in one of the arms of the Canadarm2 robot.
Canadarm2 is a robotic arm designed by the Canadian space agency (CSA). This robotic arm has been a part of the ISS for 20 years and serves to maneuver objects outside the ISS, such as cargo.
After being hit the instrument is still functioning normally. But the mysterious object that crashed into managed to penetrate the thermal blanket and damage the pillar below.
It is not known when this collision occurred, but this damage was only detected on May 12 during a routine inspection. NASA and CSA have teamed up to take clear photos and examine the damage caused.
“Regardless of the impact, the results of the ongoing analysis indicate that the performance of the arm remains unaffected,” CSA said in a blog.
“The damage was limited to a small part of the arm stud and thermal blanket. Canadarm2 continues to carry out its planned operations.”
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One of the arms of Canadarm2 that had a hole after being hit by space debris Photo: NASA/CSA– |
CSA officials called this incident a ‘lucky strike’. Because the robotic arm has a fairly small size with a length of 17.6 meters and a diameter of 35 cm.
Space junk indeed considered a ticking time bomb for life on Earth and the lives of astronauts on the ISS. Moreover, nowadays more and more companies are launching small-sized satellites.
Space agencies in many countries are already aware of this space debris problem. More than 23,000 objects in low Earth orbit have been tracked to avoid collisions between satellites and the ISS.
But the size of space objects that can be tracked is only the size of a softball and larger. Smaller objects are difficult to track, but flying at high speed can still do significant damage.
Although this time the ISS was lucky enough that this incident did not threaten the lives of the seven astronauts there, it was a threat space junk lurking continues to increase. Last year, the ISS had to perform three emergency maneuvers to avoid a collision with space junk at an altitude of 450 km.
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