What is space debris and how it can affect our life on Earth

Published On : 2024-12-01T16:14:09+0530 [ IST ] | Author : Mayur_Tembhare
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On November 25 thrusters on Russia's Progress 89 cargo spacecraft fired for 3.5 minutes to avoid a fragment from an old satellite raising the ISS's orbit by 500 meters. This maneuver came shortly after a similar incident on November

Both incidents demonstrate how the crowded environment of low Earth orbit poses increasing risks to space operations. With broadband mega constellations like SpaceX’s Starlink dominating the skies the threat of collisions and debris proliferation has never been more urgent

What is space junk?

Space junk, though invisible from the ground fills low Earth orbit (LEO) just beyond the clouds. This orbital zone has turned into a cosmic scrapyard hosting millions of fragments of debris

These pieces are mostly human-made originating from various sources like defunct satellites, rocket parts or remnants of spacecraft. Even tiny particles such as paint flecks from spacecraft contribute to this growing mess. And most of them travel at a really fast rate sometimes reaching speeds of up to 18,000 miles per hour, almost seven times faster than a bullet

The 2007 Chinese anti-satellite missile test and the 2009 collision between an American and Russian satellite are two significant events that have contributed to the growing problem of space debris in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). On January 11, 2007 China conducted a test where they destroyed their own Fengyun-1C weather satellite. This event created over 3,000 trackable debris pieces and an estimated 35,000 smaller fragment

Since there is no regulation in regards to maintaining the space junk the space agencies have been quite careless. As per NASA's official website LEO is now viewed as the world's largest garbage dump. So why can't we do anything to remove the junk?

In 1979 NASA launched its Orbital Debris Program at the Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas aiming to address the growing issue of space debris. The program focuses on minimizing the creation of new debris while also developing technologies to track and potentially remove existing debris in

Source : Reporters From Sunrise Chronicles

Tags : spacecurrent space exploration missions , Orbital Debris Program , 000broadband mega constellations like spacex ’ , Space , Chinese , Starlink , Russia , However , orbit000 miles per hour , As ,

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