Chips and cracks on your car windshield are annoying. They impair your view and you may even get a ticket if it’s big enough. Replacing a chipped windshield is also pretty expensive these days. Imagine how much it costs to replace a window on the International Space Station (ISS). Probably pretty costly. This is the problem NASA and Russia will need to figure out. According to reports, a piece of space junk slammed into the ISS, chipping a window. A chipped ISS window could spell implosion for the space station. However, NASA and Russia are brainstorming a solution. Was it space junk or were aliens having a bit of space fun?
NASA and Russia ISS Windshield Repair
The 2013 blockbuster movie “Gravity” showed a similar scenario. Space junk ripped the movie’s spacecraft to shreds. Is this a possibility for the ISS? The ISS windshield chip may also mean less amazing footage of earth from space. The space junk struck one of the Cupola windows, which is a camera favorite for footage of Earth. Photos of the chip were posted by British astronaut Tim Peake, who expressed his relief. The damage was most likely a flake of paint or small metal fragment millimeters in length. A piece of space junk more than a centimeter could be disastrous. Who will get the bill for the chipped window, NASA or Russia?
Space Junk or Aliens?
Could this be another NASA cover-up? Was it space junk that caused the chipped window, or aliens attempting to cause a bit of trouble? It could have been teenage aliens drunk on space booze tossing small paint flakes at the ISS on a boring Friday night. UFO enthusiasts will surely be all over this one. There may be YouTubers talking about how aliens were attempting to break into the ISS in a space home invasion. Aliens were probably not to blame, but it is interesting to ponder.
The Space Junk Problem
Surprisingly, there is a lot of space junk orbiting the Earth. Experts have noted that there is approximately 29,000 pieces of space junk 10 centimeters in length orbiting Earth. If a 10-centimeter piece of space junk struck the ISS, it would rip the space station to shreds. NASA and probably other space agencies like Russia and China spend a large part of their budgets monitoring space junk. NASA has their eye on 500,000 pieces of old rockets and satellites orbiting the Earth. That is a lot of space junk. Maybe SpaceX can develop some sort of space junk garbage truck.
