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Would collisions cause debris to be ejected into a higher orbit? Although I guess as long as the debris does not pick up any significant speed boost, its orbit
by rationalist 8mo ago
Would collisions cause debris to be ejected into a higher orbit? Although I guess as long as the debris does not pick up any significant speed boost, its orbit would be elliptical and would just collide with Earth (burn up on re-entry)?
- mylies43 8mo agoWouldn't a explosion give it that energy?
- rationalist 8mo agoI'm not sure every satellite would be exploding in the traditional sense with hot gases expanding. There would be disentigration when satellite pieces rip through other satellites. How many satellites carry compressed gas for orbit adjustments? Maybe there is some compressed gas pushing against liquid fuel and oxidizers, but I don't think the fuel and oxidizers would explode. Shooting tanks of gasoline with regular bullets do not cause explosions like movies would have you believe. Well, maybe pure oxidizers might, would there be enough heat generated by the tank being punctured?
- anabab 8mo agothe 2009 collision was well documented and there are interesting reports online e.g. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20100002023/downloads/20100002023.pdf https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20100002023/downloads/20... which has a chart of apogee/perigee of debris. There seem to be examples of debris with _perigee_ above the collision altitude but the vast majority stayed beyond.