Pingie: HTTP:: ISS 039 DEBIE 2 Collects Data on Space Impacts

HTTP:: ISS 039 DEBIE 2 Collects Data on Space Impacts
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The $100-billion International Space Station (ISS) is a project so valuable to the scientific community, and indeed to the whole world, that keeping it safe was among the top priorities engineers had in mind when constructing it. Armor plates adorn its sides, so that the entire structure can resist impacts from microasteroids, and man-made space debris. Still, it would have been a pity to spend years in orbit with analyzing these objects' destructive power. Hence, DEBris In-orbit Evaluator-2 (DEBIE-2) appeared. This sensor unit, made up of ten by ten cm aluminum-foil panels, was attached to the exterior of the ISS, and arranged in such a manner that each of them pointed in a different direction than the others â€" forward in the direction of orbit, upwards and sideways out to space, AlphaGalileo reports. The entire ensemble is connected to a separate data-processing unit, to which it relays telemetry data of the impact events it suffers while the station cruises above the !
Earth at seven kilometers per second. “One of the surprises we have found so far is that impact events come in clusters and are not randomly distributed. These peaks can be concentrated within the space of perhaps a minute to 80 seconds at a time, indicating the existence of clouds of dust along the ISS’ orbit,” ...
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http://news.softpedia.com/news/ISS-039-DEBIE-2-Collects-Data-on-Space-Impacts-121920.shtml
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