3 ms·
Unless some pieces were boosted higher by the explosion. But I guess they are confident this could never happen.
by natch 8y ago
Unless some pieces were boosted higher by the explosion. But I guess they are confident this could never happen.
- 6gvONxR4sf7o 8y agoOrbits are periodic. If it is boosted up, it'll come back down. Orbital decay will still happen.
- lodi 8y agoWhen you boost an orbiting object in this manner there's only two possibilities for what can happen next: a) you give it enough energy to reach escape velocity, in which case there's no problem. b) you blow out the circular orbit into a long ellipse. The far end, apogee, can be very far out depending on how much energy you added, but the near end, perigee, is always at the same altitude as it was at the moment of impact. Therefore, as long as the satellite is "within" thin atmosphere at the moment of impact, the fragments will periodically pass through thin atmosphere as well. To properly boost yourself into a higher (circular) orbit you need to give yourself two kicks: one to raise your apogee, and then half an orbit later another to raise your perigee to match.
- natch 8y agoc) it collides with something and creates more debris problems before ultimately falling back into the atmosphere. It doesn’t have to be in a sustainable orbit to cause problems.