NASA compiled satellite collision report February 10
The unprecedented collision of the satellites Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251, which occurred on February 10, could have more serious consequences in terms of pollution of the orbital space.
Computer simulation has shown that in a direct collision
The 900-kilogram “Cosmos” (compact cylinder with solar antennas around the entire circumference) and the 560-kilogram “Iridium” (longer and thinner cylinder with panels perpendicular to the hull) at a speed of 11 km / s would form about 1300 fragments. In reality, at the end of March, NASA specialists managed to catalog only 823 large fragments, which is quite a bit. Of these, about two-thirds belong to Cosmos, and only a third to Iridium, which also does not coincide with the simulation of a direct collision. That is, the "Cosmos" was damaged much more than its fellow sufferer.
According to experts, most likely, the satellites only touched each other in passing, namely, Cosmos crashed into the Iridium solar antenna.
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The work on cataloging and documenting the trajectory of each fragment continues. All of them will be listed in directories and will be monitored to prevent collisions with working satellites that are in orbit. So far, most of them have not gone beyond the 790 km zone around the scene of the incident. There they do not threaten anyone, except for other satellites, the Iridium system and some scientific satellites. Only a small amount of debris descended lower into the orbital space of the International Space Station and onto the shuttle routes.
Computer simulation has shown that in a direct collision
The 900-kilogram “Cosmos” (compact cylinder with solar antennas around the entire circumference) and the 560-kilogram “Iridium” (longer and thinner cylinder with panels perpendicular to the hull) at a speed of 11 km / s would form about 1300 fragments. In reality, at the end of March, NASA specialists managed to catalog only 823 large fragments, which is quite a bit. Of these, about two-thirds belong to Cosmos, and only a third to Iridium, which also does not coincide with the simulation of a direct collision. That is, the "Cosmos" was damaged much more than its fellow sufferer.
According to experts, most likely, the satellites only touched each other in passing, namely, Cosmos crashed into the Iridium solar antenna.
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The work on cataloging and documenting the trajectory of each fragment continues. All of them will be listed in directories and will be monitored to prevent collisions with working satellites that are in orbit. So far, most of them have not gone beyond the 790 km zone around the scene of the incident. There they do not threaten anyone, except for other satellites, the Iridium system and some scientific satellites. Only a small amount of debris descended lower into the orbital space of the International Space Station and onto the shuttle routes.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/57459/
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