India's First Interplanetary Mission i.e Mars orbiter Mission

[cндябеяs]

^^ or like china firing rockets to destroy.

it created million more pieces of debris

[Ram]

I was going to type the exact same question. Was even going to include "This maybe a noobie question". Then I read your post. :cantstop:

Noobie minds think alike. :--D

At several million KM away from Earth (where Mars is ), close to zero is really really close to zero. And nothing is done to avoid dust etc. Meteors which are being tracked are kept into account while planning the mission, nothing can be done to avoid ones which we don't know about. Most of the space debris of concern is within few thousand KM of earth, where all the remnants of old satellites, and the new satellites live. Some satellites have been lost recently due to this issue, and there is a massive effort in research community to address this. For example, Japanese are thinking of "fishing" out some of this debris using a concept similar to fishing net.

So in essence, they cannnot *guarantee* that the craft wont be struck by space matter, but the probability of that happening is infinitesimal?

[South_Paw]

So in essence' date=' they cannnot *guarantee* that the craft wont be struck by space matter, but the probability of that happening is infinitesimal?[/quote'] Exactly. Even NASA, in its good luck peanut card to ISRO during the launch said a million things need to go right for a mission like this to attacin success.

[CSK Fan]

Noobie minds think alike. :--D So in essence, they cannnot *guarantee* that the craft wont be struck by space matter, but the probability of that happening is infinitesimal?

More chance of an aircraft being truck by a meteorite, yet do aircraft take precautions against that? Space is vaster than one's imagination

[hhunaeh]

[Ram]

More chance of an aircraft being truck by a meteorite' date=' yet do aircraft take precautions against that? Space is vaster than one's imagination[/quote'] But there’s a slight difference. An airplane is a piloted vehicle. So If the pilot can identify an incoming projectile in time to avoid a collision, he/she can still steer away to avoid impact. Plus, the earth’s airspace is generally heavily monitored by a combination of military satellites/ground radar. So any unidentified space object flying across our skies is bound to be detected, providing another chance of early warning. But its different in space for unmanned missions like the Mars Rover. A – We don’t have any clue what is out there and B – even if we did, there’s nothing we can do about except to hope it misses the spacecraft.

[ganeshran]

Building a system to actively detect objects on a collision course and then avoiding those collisions are far more difficult to engineer. Given the VERY low probability, it is probably best to take your chances. Even planned course corrections are tricky at this stage.

[hhunaeh]

We have just aimed and fired a craft at mars. The craft is drifting in the direction of mars. Engines are off and are turned on periodically only to make course corrections directed from earth. This consumes precious fuel. Any little deviation from a calculated path is expected to take the craft away from mars. Communication from the craft to earth station is supposed to take many seconds. With all this i don't see how we could have had any anti collision system on board and isn't space supposed to be largely empty?

[Ram]

Building a system to actively detect objects on a collision course and then avoiding those collisions are far more difficult to engineer. Given the VERY low probability, it is probably best to take your chances. Even planned course corrections are tricky at this stage.

We have just aimed and fired a craft at mars. The craft is drifting in the direction of mars. Engines are off and are turned on periodically only to make course corrections directed from earth. This consumes precious fuel. Any little deviation from a calculated path is expected to take the craft away from mars. Communication from the craft to earth station is supposed to take many seconds. With all this i don't see how we could have had any anti collision system on board and isn't space supposed to be largely empty?

I am not advocating that all interplanetary missions carry on board some sort of collision avoiding radar/guidance system. I was just wondering out loud on whether there’s any sort of active threat posed to the spacecraft’s existence by space debris. I mean, for all the sophisticated instruments and thrusters on board, it could all be over in a second if there is a direct hit, even by a 1sq inch sized space debris. But clearly, this is does not seem a probable threat.

[CSK Fan]

But there’s a slight difference. An airplane is a piloted vehicle. So If the pilot can identify an incoming projectile in time to avoid a collision, he/she can still steer away to avoid impact. Plus, the earth’s airspace is generally heavily monitored by a combination of military satellites/ground radar. So any unidentified space object flying across our skies is bound to be detected, providing another chance of early warning. But its different in space for unmanned missions like the Mars Rover. A – We don’t have any clue what is out there and B – even if we did, there’s nothing we can do about except to hope it misses the spacecraft.

No, i dont think meteor strikes work like that. It will not be possible for the pilot to detect or take action, there wont be enough time

[hhunaeh]

No' date=' i dont think meteor strikes work like that. It will not be possible for the pilot to detect or take action, there wont be enough time[/quote'] During the russian meteor strike it was said that it was too fast for any ground based missile defense.

[nballa]

space debris is an issue only in the earths sphere of influence where satellites roam, once beyond that it should be clear space between earth and mars after that there is the asteroid belt and even then chances of a hit are slim as they are widely spaced apart.

[Ram]

Update - http://www.hindustantimes.com/specials/coverage/marsorbitermission/marsorbitermission/mangalyaan-on-track-5-things-to-know-about-india-s-mars-orbiter-mission/sp-article10-1263914.aspx Spacecraft expected to enter Mars orbit within the next week or so.