Space Debris ... is it a real problem?

[brandrea]

I’m interested to hear your thoughts on the subject.

Is this becoming like our oceans? Seems we leave our mark wherever we go.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/s...ce-junk/#close

[Dan Pierce]

Sad but true, I'm afraid.
dP

[Jackie Daytona]

I was listening to a podcast on this subject the other day. Very interesting and honestly a bit terrifying. Essentially through all the satellites and space debris, we are within a few years time of sealing ourselves in to our own atmosphere since we can’t get through the debris. Combine that with the pollution on earth, and it’s very worrisome as a people that we believe ourselves so intelligent, that we are rapidly seeming to doom ourselves and seal our own fates. I know it’s not all doom and gloom, but really crazy stuff.

[Bigblu10]

Junk in space, junk in the ocean and junk on Mt. Everest. Yup!

[Ferdelious]

Just doing some math here, lets say the average of the 23,000 pieces are 100 cu/m. That's 230,000 cu/m or approx .00023 cu/km. The Earth is approx 1,083,210,000,000 cu/km so this doesn't seem like a significant number. But I'm not a scientist or expert and maybe my math is wrong.

[Robf52]

Originally Posted by Ferdelious

Just doing some math here, lets say the average of the 23,000 pieces are 100 cu/m. That's 230,000 cu/m or approx .00023 cu/km. The Earth is approx 1,083,210,000,000 cu/km so this doesn't seem like a significant number. But I'm not a scientist or expert and maybe my math is wrong.

Except the pieces are traveling in multiple trajectories at 18k miles/hr.

[Ferdelious]

Originally Posted by Robf52

Except the pieces are traveling in multiple trajectories at 18k miles/hr.

We'll just have to make our spaceships really fast.

[Burlington]

With lower cost launches, meaning more space junk in the future, it is an issue.

I gather the big bits are already tracked.

The major risk is a chain event where one fragmentation destroys other satellites and so on.

Yes it’s a small amount of the total volume but even something the size of a marble can punch a pretty big hole at those speeds.

[Blansky]

It's not something I worry about really but wait until some junk hits a space vehicle or knocks out some satellite gear and we'll soon have salvage junk missions to clean things up. Lets face it humans are pretty bad at cleaning up after themselves.

We need some bitchy OCD companies to go up after these exploratory missions and satellite deliveries and wander through space cleaning things up going "tsk tsk, look at this mess.....what am I your mother??????....I don't have better things to do????"

[brandrea]

Originally Posted by Burlington

With lower cost launches, meaning more space junk in the future, it is an issue.

I gather the big bits are already tracked.

The major risk is a chain event where one fragmentation destroys other satellites and so on.

Yes it’s a small amount of the total volume but even something the size of a marble can punch a pretty big hole at those speeds.

This was my main take from the article as well

[AzPaul]

Guessing it's an even bigger problem for all the visiting aliens.

[stockae92]

Maybe they are trying to solve the problem

https://www.space.com/23049-space-ju...ace-plane.html

[Sebenza]

Originally Posted by Burlington

With lower cost launches, meaning more space junk in the future, it is an issue.

I gather the big bits are already tracked.

The major risk is a chain event where one fragmentation destroys other satellites and so on.

Yes it’s a small amount of the total volume but even something the size of a marble can punch a pretty big hole at those speeds.

What you're referring to is called the Kessler syndrome and it's been studied by NASA since the 70's. It's plausible that a chain reaction could occur that would take out many (if not all) satellites in Earth's lower orbit. The theory states that the debris field would eventually fall into Earth's atmosphere and burn up. However, that could take up to ten years to happen.

[enjoythemusic]

Humans are like a virus........

[austinp]

Great. Another thing I need to worry about.

Business opportunity? Space Waste Management!


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[BLACKHORSE 6]

Originally Posted by austinp

Great. Another thing I need to worry about.

Business opportunity? Space Waste Management!


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Get Elon Musk to figure it out. If there’s any way to turn it into a business opportunity, where it can be much more effective than what government space agencies can come up with, he’s the guy who could pull it off.

[Patton250]

Originally Posted by enjoythemusic

Humans are like a virus........

Um....... you are a human. I assume anyway.

[swils8610]

Won’t be an issue in my lifetime. For younger generations it will.


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[The Joker]

Great, as if I've not got enough to worry about.

[tmmii]

Originally Posted by austinp

Great. Another thing I need to worry about.

Business opportunity? Space Waste Management!


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Too late, rumors are the mob has this under control.

Originally Posted by Patton250

Um....... you are a human. I assume anyway.

Calm down Mr. Anderson.

[Tricolore66]

I think the issues is that many of the pieces are so small that they won't eventually drop out of orbit and burn up, but they're big enough to cause damage or even destroy a spacecraft. Imagine what a something the size of a dime can do if it hit something at 18,000 mph, which is approximately 10x the speed of a bullet.

[enjoythemusic]

Originally Posted by Patton250

Um....... you are a human. I assume anyway.

Yes, and why our species may want to rethink a few things.

Cleaning up space is a good start, as is cleaning up the oceans. i LOL at climate change when they don't bother cleaning the oceans, you know, the water that is 2/3rds of this planet.

Sad how Greta didn't ever mention China, but for her that seems to be a political no-no thing instead of being what it really is... a massive polluter in Asia.

[brandrea]

Originally Posted by enjoythemusic

Yes, and why our species may want to rethink a few things.

Cleaning up space is a good start, as is cleaning up the oceans. i LOL at climate change when they don't bother cleaning the oceans, you know, the water that is 2/3rds of this planet.

Sad how Greta didn't ever mention China, but for her that seems to be a political no-no thing instead of being what it really is... a massive polluter in Asia.

You have a way with words

[RyanJ]

Color me shocked. You mean we, humans, decided that destroying the Earth wasn't enough so now are moving to space.... No, we would never do that...

No idea if there are "aliens" but the smart ones have probably decided to stay far away from our unintelligent species.

[214270Explorer]

Not to mention Elon Musk's CAR is up there too !!!!!!!

Jeebus!

[enjoythemusic]

Originally Posted by brandrea

You have a way with words

Originally Posted by 214270Explorer

Not to mention Elon Musk's CAR is up there too !!!!!!!

Jeebus!

I heard a gang from Venus stole the rims.

[Rock]

The spectacular movie "Gravity" with George Clooney and Sandra Bullock deals with this issue in a very entertaining way.
One imagines that eventually there will need to be an ongoing commercial clean-up of all the hazardous rubbish that will be floating about but how it would be returned to earth is the issue. Maybe in an empty Space Shuttle that has delivered it's payload to a Space Station. I guess it is mostly small, lightweight material.

[214270Explorer]

Originally Posted by enjoythemusic

I heard a gang from Venus stole the rims.

[Andad]

At least when Elon sends something up it often comes back down again.

[kieselguhr]

As I hike I see piles of trash.

As I dive I see piles of garbage.

Now I can look to the sky and see piles of rubbish.

I agree with you Steven. With one exception. I would replace the word virus with parasite.