[meteorite-list] Orbital debris watching radar

From: Darren Garrison <cynapse_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun Feb 12 02:19:20 2006
Message-ID: <8fotu1pnnojmevle9d9atnkbp76b8hcctj_at_4ax.com>

On a less argumentative subject, there is an idea I've been wondering about for
a while. Thinking back to my wondering about what lunar meteorites do between
leaving the surface of the moon and reaching the surface of the Earth, there is
the idea that some of them enter Earth orbit and then have their orbits decay
until they fall. Given the really fresh lunars found lately, that would seem to
imply that there could be more of them in orbit now.

So, not really a coherent question but more of a musing-- just how small an
object at what distance can the radars that constantly track orbital space
program junk around the Earth reliably track? And would there be any way to
determine if a piece of orbiting debris was junk or an incoming lunar?
Received on Sun 12 Feb 2006 02:27:26 AM PST