“Space Junk: The Cosmic Clutter Clogging Up Our Orbit”
Space debris, also known as orbital junk or cosmic clutter, is a growing problem in our celestial neighborhood. It’s basically any man-made object orbiting Earth that isn’t doing anything useful anymore, like old satellites, spent rocket stages, and even tiny paint chips.
There are over 500,000 pieces of space debris larger than a centimeter being tracked by the US Space Surveillance Network, and it’s believed there are tens of millions of smaller, untracked pieces floating around out there. This stuff can be dangerous for both manned and unmanned spacecraft, as collisions with even small pieces can cause damage or destruction. Plus, all this space junk makes it harder and more expensive to launch and operate satellites, as we have to be extra careful to avoid collisions.
Most of the space debris is created when old satellites fall apart or when rocket stages explode. But sometimes, two objects in orbit can collide and create even more debris, like the infamous 2009 crash between a Russian satellite and an Iridium satellite.
So what can we do about all this space junk?
Well, we can develop technologies to track and remove debris, and we can come up with guidelines for creating less debris in the first place. The RemoveDEBRIS satellite, for example, was launched in 2018 and has a net and harpoon for capturing and deorbiting small pieces of junk. And there’s the “25-year rule,” which says that satellites should be designed to deorbit within 25 years of the end of their operational life. These guidelines are voluntary, though, so it’s up to everyone to do their part.
As more and more people and companies head into space, it’s important that we deal with the issue of space debris and make sure we’re using outer space responsibly and sustainably. It is essential to add this to our Operation “Green Earth” mission. So let’s do our part to keep our orbit clean and clear of cosmic clutter!
