What stops debris smashing into satellites?

[Drenalin]

I'm pretty sure satellites do get taken out by debris every once in awhile

 

[FadeLess]

Its not a question of if ... its a question of when.
That planet that got destroyed by i dont know what or who lived there, still lingers around being the so called asteroids belt....
Do you think we are that special ?
Are you religious ? or just spiritual ?
Fact is , its gonna happen, and we cant prevent it.

 

[Fatchops]

Simple. Megamaid does work.

 

[NAKMUAY18]

I used to assemble the propulsion system on telecommunication satellites.

The propulsion system has a main thruster that maintains the satellite at a specific distance from earth. As the satellite ages, the fuel used to keep it in orbit and point the payload array in the right direction starts to run out. It's either put into a control re-entry to burn up over the ocean, or put into a lower orbit to decay naturally. That keeps most of the shit and debris out of "active orbits".

Fun Fact! 10 years ago (ish) China decided to test out their anti-satellite program and doubled the amount of space debris orbiting earth in one shot.

 

[PRESIDENT TRUMP]

paging @JudoThrowFiasco

 

[djacobox372]

If you had a machine gun that could fire into space, what do you think the odds of randomly hitting a satellite would be?

Answer: piss poor.

 

[Brodels]

Good question TS. The fact is satellites that circle a planet don't actually exist. Telecommunications satellites are a hoax. The fact is ground based towers that triangulate our position are used for GPS, GPS systems have existed for quite some time before they were released to the public. Also, thousands of miles of underwater fiber optic cables send 99% of our data (really 100% but the experts say 99% to throw people off.)

Ok now I know you're a troll.

 

[Jack Reacheround]

I think, other than all the other reasons and means that were covered already, a lot of satellites orbit way the fuck out there compared to where much of the debris is. I once saw a diagram of all the satellites and their orbits. It looked like some where damn near half way to the moon.
Not that any of that matters because the Earth is flat, and mountains are really the stumps from prehistoric trees that were cut down by giants. My post was merely a what if scenario in case the compelling YouTube videos that Scyther posted are somehow wrong, which would be incomprehensible to me.

 

[scorpipede]

it's aliens

 

[RawHawg]

The Great Gazoo motors around and knocks space junk away from hitting our important stuff. He can be a sarcastic asshole at times, but he has a good heart deep down.

 

[My name is]

everything is dancing to the same beat

 

[JudoThrowFiasco]

LEO Satellites have a orbital range of 100-1000 km above earth - if you just modified a hill sphere to account for that circumference -- you have a massive massive massive area. So the ratio is open enough to account for satellite orbital trajectory and collision risk to a point that the probability is low. That being said, it does happen and chances just increase every year as more objects are introduced. Another thing to take account is there are very very few retrograde orbiting satellites so a constant trajectory and speed keeps most items on a fixed route.

However, LEO and GEO all use variation of Whipple shielding to protect vulnerable area and instruments for microdebris -- over the years this shielding has evolved to either deflect or destroy the natural or artificial micro debris it comes in contact with -- if you look at pictures of space shuttles upon arrival -- looks like they have litte smoke / burn marks on them.

Also, like other posters have mentioned -- majority of satellites have a decommissioning booster. So when the LEO no longer is needed -- a booster will increase its velocity causing a hyperbolic excess velocity and it will just escape the parameters of the hill sphere.

The real worry is that in the 50's -- Russian said FU to solar battery options and used Uranium 235 thermal conversion for battery purposes. So there's essentially 30 some odd nuclear power plants In orbit just a few 100 km over our heads...and one has already crashed:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosmos_954

 

[ralphc1]

The area of the surface of a sphere is a function of the square of its diameter. A geosynchronous satellite orbit is over 3 times the diameter of the earth so over 9 times the area of the surface of the earth. Then even a few feet difference in altitude will result in a miss. Anything is a relatively small target in a vast area. They track the larger pieces. Small things can't be tracked and carry a lot of energy at the speed they are moving.

The space station is in a lower orbit so less area = better target but still quite a long shot.

 

[JSN]

If you had a machine gun that could fire into space, what do you think the odds of randomly hitting a satellite would be?

Answer: piss poor.

well if we're making shit up, I'm going to make up a machine gun that shoots so many bullets that it fills 100% of teh space at 100 miles up.

 

[milliniar]

here are some future jobs in space

 

[I Am Legion]

The US is already testing a space sanitation program. Apparently Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez have applied.

 

[Scyther]

Ok now I know you're a troll.

Refuted none of what I said, calls me a troll.

 

[GSP_37]

They expect aliens to clean up the litter?

 

[Brodels]

Refuted none of what I said, calls me a troll.

You typed it as if you weren't trying as hard this time. Sounded like a different person. Almost sarcastic. Looks that way at least.

 

[Slippery Kantus]

Care to enlighten us @Scyther?

Edit

Ahhahahaha he already posted in here!