# Tag Info

## New answers tagged debris

0

In general, it is impossible to know for sure, but we can do some detective work. My two go to web sites: https://www.space-track.org -- Catalog of all space objects kept by USAF/JSPOC https://planet4589.org -- Jonathan McDowell's amazing catalog of all things space AS you point out 2010-028* is the international designator for all the objects related to ...

4

It's a valid question. The Starlinks would require larger tanks but we're still only talking about a few percent of their 227 kg mass because they use high solar-electric propulsion rather than conventional rockets. I estimated about 2.3 kg of liquid krypton for the lower orbiting Starlink satellites in this answer. That included orbit raising from 445 to ...

0

No at least not in the foreseeable future. As is pointed out in the comment the time spent in the LEO shell is many orders of magnitude higher for a satellite that is designed to stay in LEO, than one then just punching through. Hence for the density of debris in LEO to cause significant concern for passing craft would be required to be many orders of ...

3

There are sites that will list bright satellites visible at particular locations and times; they're useful both for planning observations and to retroactively determine what you might have observed. Neither Heavens Above nor In-The-Sky.org show any bright satellite passes visible from Cedar Rapids around 8pm on November 24th 2019, and the flickering reddish-...

2

They were only in orbit for a few years each in the 1960s, and thus fail the "currently" test, but the Echo1 and Echo2 satellites deserve some mention. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Echo Basically aluminized Mylar balloons, Echo1 had a volume of $14,800 \text{ m}^3$, while Echo2 topped out at $36,000 \text{ m}^3$ Echo2 was actually test-inflated ...

26

Initial and Bonus Answer: With a volume of 609.31 M^3 and an empty mass of 15,500kg (13,500 kg empty weight plus 2,000kg for the attached Instrument Unit), J002E3 is Apollo 12's S-IVB stage (designated S-IVB-507). It was intended to be placed in a heliocentric orbit following Apollo 12's TLI Burn. Due to insufficient propellant, however, it ended up ...

13

Answer for Bonus question Not entirely sure if indeed the biggest (in heliocentric orbit), but bigger than roadster for sure: S-IVB, the third stage of Saturn V rocket that was used for Apollo lunar missions (height 17.81m, diameter 6.6m) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-IVB There are few of them in heliocentric orbit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

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I would say it's probably Envisat. It is definitely the heaviest although i'm not sure if it is also the largest piece volumetrically. We had a full scale 'mock up' at our faculty and I can confirm that it is absolutely massive! They have been thinking about ways to deorbit it for quite a while now since a collision involving this large of a satellite could ...

5

I posted this a while back on Twitter (@rocketscient1st) when the first Starlink was launched: Conducted a simple analysis on a complete Starlink Phase 1 constellation. 1584 satellites: 24 planes with 66 satellites each. 53° inclination; 550 km altitude. I assumed the relative phasing as I have no direct information. I do not know the absolute magnitude of ...

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