Ablation cascade

Ablation cascade is a term used for a possible catastrophic orbital event. The event could be triggered by the explosive destruction of a satellite. The resulting debris, with its wide variety of velocities would impact other satellites. If enough of these exploded, this would result in an exponential increase in the amount of debris, until no intact satellites were left.

Hypothetical occurrence

If a micrometeorite punctured a satellite in such a way that the maneuvering fuel and oxidizer were allowed to come into contact with each other, the resulting explosion might not destroy the satellite, it would create spalling- metal shards that could may puncture other orbiting bodies. This could possibly cause them to explode in a rapid sequence that would end only when all orbiting bodies are pounded into pieces too small to collide.

The resulting high energy debris field could render access to space impossible (Kessler Syndrome). As the number of satellites and amount of debris in orbit continues to rise, the probability of such an event increases.

Cleanup

For very small fragments, no known technology can collect and deal with the many fragments from the widely separated orbital planes.

One technology for the bigger fragments that can be tracked is the laser broom, a multimegawatt land-based laser that could be used to target fragments. When the laser light hits a fragment, one side of the fragment would ablate, creating a thrust that would change the eccentricity of the remains of the fragment until it would re-enter harmlessly.

See also

• Kessler Syndrome