That's a problem, given that most satellites remain in orbit for an average of 25 years or more, said Rick Fleeter, an adjunct associate professor of engineering at Brown. It also includes defunct satellites that remain in orbit sometimes decades after their mission is complete. Orbital debris ranges from any human-made object in Earth's orbit that no longer serves a useful function, like nonfunctional spacecraft, abandoned launch-stage vehicles, mission-related debris and fragmentation debris. Now, a new analysis of data from Air Force Space Command shows that the satellite not only successfully operated, but could have far-ranging impacts on efforts to cut down on the growing problem of space debris, which poses a potential danger to all current and future space vehicles.Īccording to NASA, there are now more than 27,000 pieces of what it calls orbital debris or space junk being tracked by the Department of Defense's global Space Surveillance Network. They even sent the satellite-which is powered by 48 Energizer AA batteries and a $20 microprocessor popular with robot hobbyists-into space about 10 months ago, hitching a ride on Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket. They built a satellite on a shoestring budget and using off-the-shelf supplies available at most hardware stores. But a team of engineering students from Brown University has turned that assumption on its head.
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