Regarding the incident of the Chinese space station being hit several times, I found some relevant information through my search. The main culprit of these impacts is space junk, including rocket wreckage of various types, remnants of decommissioned satellites, and debris from collisions between space objects. This space junk moves at high speed in space and poses a threat to the space station. Even small pieces of debris can cause serious damage if they hit the space station at high speeds123.
In response to this threat, the Shenzhou-18 manned spacecraft carried special protective armor. This armor is made of lightweight, high-hardness ceramics and is embedded with high-strength fibers through a special process to form an indestructible protective shield. It has the advantage of high comprehensive strength, good heat resistance, and strong impact resistance, and can effectively resist high-speed micrometeorite impacts and severe temperature impact impacts1.
However, these measures remain a passive means of defense. A more fundamental solution is to reduce the amount of space junk generated. To this end, there are various proposals, including the use of high-energy lasers to alter the trajectory of space junk so that it burns up and disappear in the atmosphere, and the use of magnets to adsorb space junk3.
In summary, the multiple collisions of China's space station highlight the threat of space junk to the safety of spacecraft, and also demonstrate the innovation and efforts of mankind in addressing this challenge.
