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 transportation. READ ALSO – Archaeologists Find Evidence of Witchcraft Used by the Greeks for Thousands of Years Then
After the collision, the instrument was still operational, but the debris managed to penetrate the thermal layer and damage the parts underneath.
It is not known exactly when the 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.
This incident is certainly a serious reminder that the problem of low-Earth orbit space junk is a ticking time bomb.
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 the ISS this time seems lucky, the space junk problem seems to be on the rise. Last year, the ISS had to perform three emergency maneuvers to avoid a collision with debris outer space at an altitude of about 400 kilometers.
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