Debris Fields

"Every time a satelite, ship, probe, station or other man-made structure crashes and explodes in space, the rest of us are left to dodge the bits and pieces going about our daily lives, so do us all a favor; don't explode."

While some of the dangers can be mitigated with advancements in technology, engineers still haven't found a great way to handle bits of metal traveling thousands of kilometers per hour. Herein lies the real danger of leaving junk unattended in orbit around any body.

Type

Natural

Debris fields are considered to be man-made hazards.

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A Small Piece...

Space debris can easily cover large swaths of orbital space if protective measures are not taken. This was a particular issue on Earth just after the Expansion when many fuel tanks were ditched and several accidental collisions left thousands of small bits of metal in orbit. After some time, and as debris collided and made even more, albiet smaller, debris, Earth could hardly send any more ships off planet and satellites the world had come to rely on, such as GPS and communications, were destroyed.

A Big Impact

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Breaker

Breaking is considered one of the more dangerous professions in space since it requires a crew to place themselves directly inside a debris field. The job is lucrative however, and since the majority of operations are government contracts, the life insurance alone would pay for a family for the rest of their lives.

The Netter Class

A new class of ship was developed to combat space debris called Netters. These vessels were large, well-armored, and equipped with massive electromagnets and large nets built from steel cable. The purpose of the ship wasn't to collect debris, with the exception of high-value components, but to destabilize the orbit so the junk would burn up in atmosphere. This job sometimes required debris to be chopped into smaller chunks for them to properly burn up, or they can be destabilized so they will impact in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

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Hazard Levels

There are three levels of hazard presented by debris field based on density, spread, and size of the debris.

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Minor Field

A minor field is catagorized by pieces of debris of such size and in low enough density for the vast majority (at least 99.9 percent) to be tracked by radar.

Dangerous Field

A dangerous field has large and small pieces of debris, usually in clusters, of such size and density that some debris may not be detectable by radar.

Catastrophic Debris

Catastrophic fields are composed of all sizes of debris and are so dense and well spread that less than half of the debris is trackable by radar.