Prepare a new 'Space Fence' in orbit

With the speed on Earth orbit, more than 28,000 km / h, a tiny piece of trash can also be disastrous.

The US Air Force is studying a new radar system, which tracks thousands of garbage that are drifting on Earth's orbit , from used missile parts to uncontrolled ' zombie ' satellites . with ground station.

Space waste is flying around Earth's orbit

The system, called ' Space Fence ', will use S-band radars and computers to detect extremely small objects, with a diameter of only about 2.54 cm. At Earth's orbit, more than 28,000 km / h, a tiny piece of trash can also cause immeasurable harm.

" A piece of garbage with a diameter of 2.54 cm can destroy any satellite operating in Earth's orbit ," Space.com quoted Nicholas Johnson, NASA's Orbital Program Manager at Johnson Space Center in Houston (USA).

Until 2009, space collisions were often present only in theory. However, this changed when the Russian weather satellite broke down and crashed into the Iridium communications satellite, causing the scene to be sprawled with about 3,000 debris. It is only calculated pieces with a diameter greater than 10 cm, the smallest object that the current system can identify.

Lockheed Martin's Space Program Manager, John Morse, said that tracking the orbital debris is always a difficult problem for those who want to take advantage of space for all purposes such as telecommunications and love. newspaper…

According to Mr. Morse, basically the theory of ' big sky ' is no longer available, and everything must be carefully calculated if you want to continue using Earth orbit in the future.

The VHS-based orbital debris detection system, built in 1961, consists of 3 stations and 6 receivers across the United States, at specific locations of 33 degrees north of the equator, like San Diego, Red River and Hawkinsville.

The problem here is that the system has gone through most of its use cycle.

The list of space debris currently numbered over 22,000 objects. Johnson thinks the actual number must be over 100,000 after the ' Space Fence ' has been completed.

The US Air Force has just taken the next step, delegating the above system design within 18 months to Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. Each contract is worth 107 million USD. The goal is that the new system must be on orbit in 2015, according to NASA.