Longtime readers of this column will recall that the proliferation of space debris in near-Earth orbits is an issue that I have previously expressed concern about. Last May, the inevitable happened when a piece of space debris too small to be tracked has hit and damaged part of the International Space Station, namely, the Canadarm2 robotic arm <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref1" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">[1]</xref> . The object punctured the thermal blanket and damaged the boom underneath, but fortunately, the instrument is still operational <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref1" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">[1]</xref> .