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Space Junk Around Earth Out of Control


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This is a story of human beings being good at what they do best, that is, polluting their surroundings. Such folly is found in space as well, since right now there’s a whole lot of junk orbiting our planet, most of it man made stuff from space programs in the last 50 years. This awful case of Kessler Syndrome needs to be resolved, so great minds are now coming together to think up a solution even if NASA has no money, no means for additional space launches, and Russian Soyuz rockets are’t going anywhere for the next few months.

Space Debris 02

The great minds did come up with a solution. In a lengthy report submitted on September 1, the biggest suggestion was for a database to be compiled on every single scrap of debris floating out there. Keep in mind that space debris comes in all sizes, be it a dead satellite or loose screws.

If you’re wondering why the space junk issue is called Kessler Syndrome that’s because of Donald Kessler, who’s in charge of NASA’s Orbital Debris Office.

The ugly truth behind the report is neither NASA nor any other country has the means to solve the problem until the near future. In the dread event that the ISS is left abandoned then it too could be deemed functional space junk.

Source Fox News


Filed Under: Geeky Stuff, Technology News

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  • Jazzee

    Dear Team and readers,

    I am particularly concerned about the damage we cause to the environment starting with junk in space, earth, and the ocean.

    As a participant of Singularity University ’11 at NASA Ames, I am very happy to share with you my video about space debris:
    http://twitc.com/Prx1eWiui

    I am willing to create an international organization that regulates the amount of debris starting with space.

    If interested, contact me.I hope you will like it and feel free to publish the video and share it among your friends.
    Jaz

  • Space
    Debris is a cumulative problem. Some of it is as old as the space age !

     

    The
    ISS conducts costly, resource consuming maneuvers just to avoid debris. It also
    puts an unwanted burden on crew and mission control. Despite all this effort,
    there is no guarantee that ISS will suffer catastrophic damage from this
    problem. Several ideas have been proposed to curtail and eventually eliminate
    manmade debris production.

     

    1.Large
    debris including decommissioned satellites should be deorbited to avoid the
    Kessler effect. One way to do this is to build an architecture/fleet of
    vehicles that will go up to GEO or other orbit and grab the satellite and
    thrust it into an orbit that has such a low periigee that it will burn up in
    the Earth’s atmosphere

    2.Smaller
    debris could be vaporized by ground-based and space-based lasers. Extensive
    studies have been done on this subject and powerful lasers have been developed
    since such ideas were proposed.

    While
    basing such facilities in orbit poses a problem for space policy – may be seen
    as weaponization of space – it is important to look above and beyond this
    narrow mindset. Once we become a spacefaring species travelling in
    interplanetary and interstellar space, we will need systems to eliminate
    natural debris that may pose a hazard along dead-reckon trajectory. Since we may
    be flying in very high energy trajectories(see VASIMR), we may not have the
    resources( including time) to alter course. At speeds VASIMR intends to
    operate(Earth-Mars in three weeks !), collision with even very small natural
    debris can be catastrophic since the impact energy squares with velocity(this
    is the other side of travelling fast philosophy using known, conventional
    physics principles) So, the only option would be to clear the path using
    “weapons”. So, it is critical that we develop and wield this
    technology for safe passage.

     

    Such
    an idea to test and evolve a debris busting system was proposed in our studio
    at USC and the slide set is among other concepts proposed for the evolution of
    the International Space Station to be found here:

     

    http://denecs.usc.edu/hosted/ASTE/527_20111/