Trash threatening space exploration – BBC

Hugh Lewis Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Southampton

More than 5,000 launches since the beginning of the space age have created enough garbage to load the Earth orbit.

In 2014, the International Space Station (ISS) had to move three times to avoid a deadly collision with pieces of space junk. The waste is also a danger for expensive satellites stay in orbit. But how big is this problem and what we can do to solve it?

45 years ago, a nun of Zambia questioned the associate director of the Marshall Space Flight Center of NASA, Ernst Stuhlinger, for suggesting spending million in space flight when there were so many children starving on Earth

Read:. How likely is it that rolls down a piece of space junk

Today, the answer? Stuhlinger remains a useful tool for the costs associated with space research justification.

“It is certainly no coincidence that we are beginning to see the enormous task ahead in time when it was emerging exploration Space is giving us the first good pictures of our planet “he said.

For numbers

• More than 21,000 larger pieces of 10 cm

• Over 100 million parts less than 1 cm

• 28,163 km / h traveling speed at

• 750-800km distance Earth to who are the highest concentrations of trash

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“Fortunately, in addition, the space was not only gives us a mirror in which we look at ourselves, but also provides us with the technology, challenges, motivation and even optimism to face these tasks with confidence.”

In the years that followed, the space infrastructure contributed to the efforts to deal with health problems, hunger, poverty, education, risk management in disasters, energy security and climate change.

Cons

But unfortunately, the space environment has suffered the impact of our growing dependence on satellites and the widespread perception that ” the space is great. “

Space debris threatens to expensive satellites orbiting our planet.

Since the beginning of the space age, there have been more than 5,000 launches to send satellites that have left as a result an increasingly congested space.

Currently, the Network of Space Monitoring United States monitors tens of thousands of larger than a tennis ball objects

See also:. How space debris is cleaned

?

It is estimated that there are over 100 million objects larger than 1 millimeter in size.

Due to its enormous speed orbital (more than 28,000 km hour), each of these objects can damage or destroy a satellite.

Problems / Solutions

Perhaps more symptoms visible problem are regular maneuvers to avoid collisions of the ISS and the increasing frequency with which the occupants must take refuge in safer areas every time a piece of garbage is detected and it is too late to start a maneuver.

Thanks to the film “Gravity”, we can now appreciate the anxiety they must feel astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the station every time I warn them of the danger of a piece of junk, and that the ISS orbit at an altitude where the amount of waste is relatively low.

The film “Gravity” made us aware of the anxiety that astronauts must feel about the possibility of a collision because of the trash.

At a higher altitude, the amount is much higher, but there is no single robotic spacecraft.

However, these satellites are among the most . valuable for understanding our planet

Read: Predicted increase in collisions of space junk

Because of the congestion, it is easier to trash play .

That is, that more waste is created by collisions of which is lost through natural decay caused by atmospheric drag.

The concern has prompted scientists to find ways to . delete

The task is not simple. requires new technologies potentially new laws and financial investment -crucialmente-

The European Space Agency (ESA) leading efforts to “e.Deorbit” mission, trying to remove a large space European satellite.

The mission is ambitious and is not without risks (including the use of a harpoon), but if successful show that there is a technical solution, but has not yet been resolved political, legal and economic problems.

Space All

But something is changing: what was the domain of governments and space agencies before is now also part of an emerging industry that is revolutionizing the use of space

Small Companies and star-ups are proving how small budgets do not necessarily mean small ambitions. For example, Planet Labs, in San Francisco, is using the “CubeSat” (a miniature satellites) to redefine the market for images of Earth.

In 2007, a piece of trash drilled a panel of the shuttle Endeavour.

Dove Its satellites are smaller than a briefcase, but have the ability to take pictures of the Earth high resolution for a multitude of purposes.

Many space agencies fear the long-term consequences of the rapid commercialization of space.

Especially for the sharp increase in satellites orbiting our planet and can substantially increase the need for collision avoidance maneuvers and increase the amount of debris generated from the same litter.

larger groups

In 2014, Brian Weeden, Technical Advisor of the Foundation for a Safer World, he described the debris as a “superretorcido problem.” These problems, he said, are particularly difficult to resolve because time is running, there is no central authority to provide support, who are trying to solve are the same that cause, and future generations are the ones to find the solutions.

The first critical step in solving this kind of problem is to expand the group of people who support measures to reduce the risk.

Many fear that the proliferation of low-cost small satellites exacerbate the problem.

However, there is much work to be done to understand the problem fully, develop technologies, eliminate legal and political barriers and increase awareness of this problem.

The space age has allowed us to find global solutions to some of the problems of the most difficult society to solve, as Stuhlinger said.

And has also served as a mirror to show us that ignore the space environment affect our ability to find these solutions, with potential consequences for millions of people.