Will space junk fall? How to use space station junk?

Generally speaking, space junk refers to man-made objects that can orbit the Earth but are of no use. Currently, more than 400 pieces of space junk fall to Earth every year. Many astronomy enthusiasts wonder if space junk will fall. How to use space station junk and deal with space junk, Encyclopedia Knowledge Network will slowly share with you.

Contents of this article

1. Will space junk fall?

2. How to use space station garbage

3. How to deal with space debris

Will space junk fall?

Space junk falls. In fact, a lot of space junk enters the atmosphere every year. Generally, the smaller ones burn up in the atmosphere. Generally speaking, space junk refers to man-made objects that can orbit the earth but are of no use. Currently, about 400 pieces of space junk fall to the earth every year.

Space junk is very harmful to satellites and space stations that are in normal use. A wrench hitting you head-on is equivalent to the power of a grenade. It is also potentially dangerous to the ground.

Satellites or space debris rely on gravity to circle in the sky at high speed. The thin atmosphere in outer space or other factors will slow down the objects and reduce the centrifugal force. Then the objects will get closer and closer to the earth and eventually burn up or fall into the sea.

The reason why artificially controlled spacecraft such as satellites do not fall down is that they have their own small engines that replenish their speed from time to time and return to their original orbit.

How to use space station garbage

The waste in the space station is classified differently and handled in different ways. The water produced by life is generally purified and reused, the domestic waste is collected, compressed, and stored, and the excrement is pumped into sealed bags, dehydrated, compressed, and stored.

At present, scientists have not yet invented equipment that can degrade or recycle domestic waste. Most of the garbage generated by astronauts in daily life is collected and packaged, and when the spacecraft returns to Earth, the garbage is brought into the atmosphere for combustion.

Water in the space station is a very precious resource. The urine excreted by astronauts on a daily basis generally requires a special treatment system for rotary distillation, condensation collection, purification, and then reuse. The residual urine concentrate is compressed and packaged.

How to deal with space junk

Scientists deal with space debris in two main ways. One is avoidance, which is to push non-functioning satellites into other orbits to avoid collisions with normally functioning satellites. The other is destruction, which is to use spacecraft to bring damaged satellites back to the Earth's atmosphere to burn, thereby reducing the amount of debris in space.

Space junk, also known as space debris, orbital debris, etc., refers to various man-made waste objects and their derivatives in outer space, such as scrapped satellites, paint spots on the surface of spacecraft, liquid materials leaked from spacecraft and other substances.

These fragments of space debris are traveling at orbital speeds and have huge kinetic energy, posing a risk of colliding with other spacecraft. Some of these space debris can pose a threat to ground safety when they return to the atmosphere, so the main way to deal with them currently is to avoid them.