Optics Debris Detection
Orbital Debris: An Emerging Problem
The low earth orbit was free of manmade objects until 1957, but since then, the number of small and large pieces of debris orbiting our planet has skyrocketed. Today, there are an estimated 40500 pieces of space debris larger than ten centimeters, and 130 million greater than 1 mm. Since these pieces of debris travel at speeds in the order of kilometers per second, collisions can be catastrophic. It has been estimated that a small coin traveling at 10/km/s can deliver the same impact as a small bus, traveling at 100 km/hr. Even small pieces of space debris, then, are too dangerous to be ignored.