Micrometeoroids and Orbital Debris

Micrometeoroids and Orbital Debris Latest News

Recently, a piece of debris struck the Chinese crewed vehicle Shenzhou-20, causing a minor crack in the window of its return capsule which raised the concerns regarding protections of astronauts from Micrometeoroids and Orbital Debris (MMOD) that orbit the earth.

About Micrometeoroids

• Micrometeoroids are typically extremely small, with sizes ranging from a few micrometres (a millionth of a meter) to up to about two millimetres
• Origin: Most of them originate from collisions between asteroids in the Asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) with a small portion coming from comets.
• Speed: They travel at extremely high velocities (about 11 to 72 km/s).
• Distribution: They exist everywhere in space, but due to the Earth’s gravity pull their distribution is slightly higher near our planet.
• The micrometeoroids in Earth’s orbital environment are effectively uncountable and they deliver billions of impacts to orbiting spacecraft annually.

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About Orbital Debris

• They are also called space debris, space junk or space trash.
• They consist of human-made objects in the Earth’s orbit which no longer serves any useful purpose.
• Origin: All orbital debris originated primarily from exploded rocket stages, satellites, accidental collisions and intentional anti-satellite weapon tests.
• The typical average speed of orbital debris is about 10 km/s.
• Orbital debris is mostly concentrated in a “shell” around the Earth in Low earth Orbit (LEO) ranging from about 200 km up to 2,000 km altitude. 

Source: TH