Technoteacher - Day 9
Meteoroids and Space Debris
Topic
Potential hazard from meteoroids and space debris
Description
The penetrating power of a projectile with a small mass but high velocity is demonstrated.
Materials
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Raw potato |
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a large diameter plastic straw |
Procedure:
- Hold a raw potato in one hand. While grasping the straw with the other hand, stab the potato with a quick sharp motion. The straw should penetrate completely through the potato. Caution: Be careful not to strike your hand.
- Again hold the potato and this time stab it with the straw using a slow push. The straw should bend before penetrating the potato.
Discussion
Space technologies, like Canadarm2, are likely to encounter fast-moving rocky particles called meteoroids. A meteoroid can be very large with a mass of several thousand tons, or it can be very small – a micrometeoroid about the size of a grain of sand. Every day the Earth’s atmosphere is struck by hundreds of thousands or even millions of meteoroids, but most never reach the surface because they are vaporized by the intense heat generated when they rub against the atmosphere. It is rare for a meteoroid to be large enough to survive the descent through the atmosphere and reach Earth in a solid state. If it does it is called a meteorite.
In space there is no blanket of atmosphere to protect spacecraft from the full force of meteoroids. Engineers have protected space technologies from micrometeoroids and space debris in a number of ways, including construction of double-walled shields. The outer wall, constructed of foil and hydrocarbon materials, disintegrates the striking objects into harmless gas that disperses on the second wall.
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