If Meteors Are Constantly Pelting Earth, Why Hasn't the Space Shuttle or The Int'l Space Station Been Hit?

Answer 1

Both have been hit an infinite number of times, Just not by anything big enough to destroy them. Given enough exposure in space the time will come that a strike damages or destroys one of these vessels.

Answer 2

First of all there have been small micro-meteor strikes though nothing on a scale that made news particularly as the damage was minimal. Most of the damage is absorbed by the shielding.

Second, the chances of hitting a relatively small object (shuttle or space station) by an even smaller object (the average meteor) in an area as vast as orbital space is probably far less likely than being struck by lightning, which does happen but even less often than your chances of winning a lottery.

Answer 3

By "continuously pelting earth" the implication is that the meteoroids (as they would be termed at orbital altitude" are abundant and close together. Not so. Even though several tons impact earth daily most are very tiny grains of dust many kilometers apart. These probably do impace the shuttle and ISS, but are too small to do damage.

Even so, during Mercury and Gemini days astronauts reported noise they associated with possible impacts of meteoroids. I don't know if they were confirmed as such hits, however. Before longer duration flights were possible NASA sent up three satellites in their Pegaus series. These had large (for the time) 'wings' which were used to test the number and frequency of meteoroid hits. They found a very low 'flux' of meteoroids.

If a meteoroid the size of a grain of sand were to strike the shuttle in a critical position, the impact itself would not be critical to the life of the crew at the time of impact, but the result of the impact might be devastating, say, during reentry. Larger meteoroids might cause physical damage sufficient to endanger the crew prior to reentry, however.

Answer 4

They have been. Many times. But most of the debris that hit the Earth are more like a dust motes than anything else. Even a meteor that flashes halfway across the sky usually isn't any bigger than a grain of sand. There have been lots of meteor strikes. But so far none have been big enough to cause any serious damage,

Doug

Answer 5

Both the shuttle and the space station have been bombarded with space debris but no one chunk of space rock has been big enough to cause any significant damage to the shuttles or the space station.

Answer 6

In fact, they have. The shuttle came back with it's windshield suffering from a 2" crater a few years back - probably hit by something about the size of a grain of sand.

Answer 7

definite, this could be conceivable, yet its no longer a enormous one. evaluate that multiple the debris in area are exceptionally small, area is exceptionally enormous, and maximum debris are no longer shifting all that right now. whilst the commute is shifting rather speedy in assessment, maximum debris is blocked via protecting. Conceivably, an merchandise must be great and speedy adequate to return flying by way of and injury the commute ala the movie "Armageddon", yet we are able to locate any merchandise that great and pass our commute. over the years, even however, the consistent exposure to even the small debris does start to attack products, as some satellites are severly pitted and abraded from time in "empty" area.

Answer 8

another answer to your question would be, the earth is a little bit bigger than the shuttle, like maybe 8000 miles across as opposed to 200 feet across. Just a little bigger.

Answer 9

They get hit all the time but 99.99 % of meteors are absolutely tiny and don't do anything but mar the polish.