Video: Space debris as a danger to space travel - more safety with the GESTRA space radar
Several thousand satellites, spacecraft and other objects orbit in near-Earth space. However, there are also hundreds of thousands of pieces of space debris in this area, totalling around 8,000 tonnes of material. Most of it - around 75 per cent - is in low orbits between 200 and 2000 kilometres above the Earth's surface, in what is known as Low Earth Orbit (LEO). A collision with space infrastructure therefore poses a high risk. The International Space Station (ISS), which orbits at an altitude of around 400 kilometres, is also affected. In order to avoid collisions as far as possible, reliable data on the space situation is required on a continuous basis. Radar systems such as GESTRA are needed for this purpose.
Video: Space debris as a danger to space travel - more safety with the GESTRA space radar
Video: Space debris as a danger to space travel - more safety with the GESTRA space radar
Several thousand satellites, spacecraft and other objects orbit in near-Earth space. However, there are also hundreds of thousands of pieces of space debris in this area, totalling around 8,000 tonnes of material. Most of it - around 75 per cent - is in low orbits between 200 and 2000 kilometres above the Earth's surface, in what is known as Low Earth Orbit (LEO). A collision with space infrastructure therefore poses a high risk. The International Space Station (ISS), which orbits at an altitude of around 400 kilometres, is also affected. In order to avoid collisions as far as possible, reliable data on the space situation is required on a continuous basis. Radar systems such as GESTRA are needed for this purpose.
Credit: © DLR. All rights reserved
Duration:00:04:39