Year milestone 1962
But in space, uncontrolled objects do not follow a straight path
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- ORBITAL DECAY
- OSIRIS-REX
| But in space, uncontrolled objects do not follow a straight path. Instead, each piece of debris is subject to drift and decay. The variation in Earth’s gravitation field causes drift or the gradual movement of an object to a different orbital plane. The friction of an object with Earth’s atmosphere causes decay or the slow decrease in an object’s altitude.
Live satellites can be repositioned using onboard thrusters to counteract natural drift and keep to their intended orbits, but dead ones. Those just keep on floating, unrestrained, drifting and decaying and, at any moment, knocking into other drifters. ORBITAL DECAYIn orbital mechanics, decay is a process that leads to the gradual decrease of the distance between two orbiting bodies at their closest approach over many orbital periods. These orbiting bodies can be a planet and its satellite, a star and any object orbiting it, or components of any binary system. The orbital decay can be caused by a multitude of mechanical, gravitational, and electromagnetic effects. For bodies in a low Earth orbit, the most significant effect is the atmospheric drag. If left unchecked, the decay eventually results in termination of the orbit where the smaller object strikes the surface of the primary; or for objects where the primary has an atmosphere, it burns, explodes, or otherwise breaks up in its atmosphere; or for objects where the primary is a star, ends with incineration by the star’s radiation (such as for comets), and so on. Causes of Orbital Decay include Atmospheric drag, Tidal effects, Mass concentration, light, and thermal radiation, and gravitational radiation. OSIRIS-REXOSIRIS-Rex stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer. It is a NASA asteroid study and sample-return mission. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which previously sent the New Horizons spacecraft zooming by Pluto and the Juno spacecraft into orbit around Jupiter. Download 2.63 Mb. Share with your friends:
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