Shocking Space Debris Images
by Christine Lepisto, Berlin on 04.20.08
The German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ, German only) today published an article on space junk. The shocking image is an eye opener. Humankind continues to repeat the mistake of strewing waste into common spaces (no pun intended) without a thought to the consequences, leaving costs we don't want to pay today for the future generations. The FAS article spurred our curiosity, leading us to find even more spectacular video and potential solutions to the problem (overleaf).
The ESA Space Debris Accumulation video depicts the tragic build up of space debris from 1957 through 2000. According to ESA's resident space debris expert, Walter Flury, the 10,000 pieces of space litter catalogued at the end of 2003 break into the following categories:
- 41% -- miscellaneous fragments
- 22% -- old spacecraft
- 13% -- mission related objects
- 7% -- operational spacecraft
- 7% -- rocket bodies
Real Damage from Space Debris
So what, you say? There is a lot of space in Space...the images probably make it appear worse than it really is. Statistically, destructive collisions with operational satellites are predicted on average once every ten years. Nonetheless, as the image at left shows, the risk of damage is real. This hole over 1 cm in diameter penetrates the Hubble high gain antenna dish (the unit continued working in spite of the damage). The windows on the Space Shuttle have been replaced 80 times due to impacts with objects of less than 1 mm. And costly systems to track and issue daily emails warning of potential impacts must be maintained. The future impacts must also be considered. Space debris would be a severe hindrance to space-based solar projects. Last, but not least, there is the risk of space junk raining down on us: space junk hitting an Oklahoma woman is one of Space.com's top ten most memorable pieces of space junk .
Graveyards in Space
So what can be done? Guidelines do exist, published by the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC). The guidelines limit creation of debris in normal operations, and promote "disposal" either by deorbiting junk back towards earth, where it usually burns up in the atmosphere, or by putting space junk into "graveyard" orbits above the commercially important low-Earth and geostationary orbit zones. But more needs to be done. Some experts advocate for regulations. Live Science takes it a step farther, speculating on giant NERF balls, space lasers and cosmic collection vehicles among other imaginative ways to tackle the growing problem.
Via ::Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and European Space Agency
ACK! No wonder in all those futuristic sci-fi stories we've left earth FAR FAR behind!
Seriously?. Space "junk" is the smallest problem we have and it is not very disturbing at all, so "don't panic" as written on top of the guide. You will more likely get struck by lightning than by space junk.
Once we plan to build greater structures in space we'll be glad to have the material already up there. This again lowers the numbers of flights we have to do, and again this is greener.
In space no one has to care, unlike in the polluted oceans...
Have a nice day, jp
WHy is this image shocking? It's radically exaggerated. I'm not saying this isn't a problem but that image is hugely misleading.
The more trouble the Pentagon has weaponizing space, the better off we'll all be.
More. Junk. In. Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace!
Man litters every environment with his garbage.
Space is just the newest trash bin.
.... .... .... "what, me worry?" .... .... .... we are mad.
Add me to the group who think that using such a misleading image incredibly detracts from the message.
If someone gives a realistic assessment of the problem, I might start listening. For example, with strikes from small objects, how much of these are from "space junk" and how much from the usual kind of micro-meteorites?
I don't see an explanation of what exactly caused the damage to the Hubble cited above. Was it actually space junk that caused the problem?
Needs an "objects in artist rendering not to scale" disclaimer.
satellites need to burn fuel intermittently to maintain orbit, so the bad news is this stuff will come down eventually and (hopefully) burn up. It's just chance if they will hit other satellites and create more space debris, and some of the objects are potentially big enough to hit land.
I'm with jp - this graphic is not a photograph. It is, as the original article states (and you should, too), an "abgebildete Grafik." It looks scary, because the artist wanted it to look scary.
My question: What is the actual probability that space junk will cause problems for working satellites? If it were high, you would think that communications companies and governments would be worried.
I'm not afraid of the space junk, but isn't it sad that we continue to pollute where ever we go! Why must we foul up our water, our air, our land and now even the space which we are hardly even using yet. Makes you wonder what's to come!
As one of the few species who fouls its own next and anything else it touches ... we should be concerned ...
As a species we will ultimately get what's coming to us ... unfortunately, at least at first, it is those who inflict the least damage on the planet who will suffer most.
What's alarming is not that we're in any danger, or that there are any directly-related environmental side-effects; rather, this is a disturbing illustration the extent of human carelessness. We don't care about our air, our water, our soil, so it's hardly surprising that we would care about anything outside of our atmosphere.
This doesn't stir up worry so much as it stirs up anger.
When I go back-packing, the rule is: pack it in, pack it out. Why can't NASA employ the same rules?
The cost for cleanup would be, as they say, astronomical. The waste in contaminated by the space radiation and retrieving it is costly and safely disposing of it even more so. So the best treatment is just to let it burn up in the atmosphere especially when considering much of the waste is the size of small nuts, bolts, hammers, and other things practically impossible to retrieve.
You would think all this junk would help reduce global warming by blocking sunlight and reflecting it back out into space...
I wonder, how this picture would have looked like, if it would have been about our current level of pollution on Earth. There would have been just piles of rubbish, no human at all...or we are just a rubbish making species, until we learn something more sustainable and polite to other living species or to finally extinct.
However, I think this picture could have changed a lot in the space planning departments, if promoted loud and wide. We simply need to collect the rubbish we produce on the spot and recycle it later, even though it is highly radioactive material.
p.s.
Robots are going to collect our waste, soon...):
I wonder what happens if a US/Russian/Chinese spy satellite gets taken out by a piece of junk quietly one night on the opposite side of the world to the listening stations.
It would be tough for the owner to just see it as an unfortunate accident!
I agree with Tony, it's our careless attitude of "In space no one has to care, unlike in the polluted oceans" that gets us into a mess. Before it was, "In the oceans no one has to care, unlike in the polluted earth; in the earth no one has to care, unlike in our polluted house" and so on and so forth.
We must realise that we can't continue acting like children, throwing our rubbish anywhere we want just because we are in our don't-care-post-teen-angst stage... Grow up!
Yup it's like plastic, CO2 and nuclear waste - we always think we're so clever when we make the things, but what happens after?
Who cares, this is PROGRESS you luddite!
**Once we plan to build greater structures in space we'll be glad to have the material already up there.**
This is dumb.
There are really only 31 pieces of space junk that I'm worried about (so far as I know). Discarded nuclear reactors from the old soviet RORSAT program, just hanging out in space, waiting to deorbit (after maybe being hit by ANOTHER peiece of junk) and kill us all.
http://www.space.com/news/mystery_monday_040329.html
makes you think
There is a good manga series devoted to this issue: planetes.
It's about the crew of a garbage-truck-in-space. They try to prevent the "Kessler syndrome", which will happen, wenn pieces of junk collide and produce a plethora of small projectiles.
THIS IS SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT, HUMANS ALWAYS HAS BEEN RELATED TO GARBAGE IN SPACE IS JUNK, BUT AT THE END IS GARBAGE AND WE MUST CREATED A NEW SPACE CONCIOUS TO KEEP IT CLEAN, TO KEEP IT BEAUTIFUL AND VERY MUCH THE WAY IT WAS BEFORE WE WERE THERE.
Yes space junk is a problem and will increasingly be more of a problem in the future. However, how this story is presented it comes off as overblown space propaganda.
If there were that much space junk we wouldn't be able to see the stars or the even Moon for that matter. I understand they are trying to make a visual depiction of the problem... but c'mon, seriously. This is ridicuous and people will be misled by it.
This picture is very disturbing......no only have we succesfully overcrowded our earth by human population, and it's digust that comes with it....not to forget GREED! But we have also created a waste land for space...."It AINT RIGHT" We are pathetic, lets go green....save what we can for our future. We can not stop procreation, but we can teach correct methods that will make a change for future life times. One, Question....Why would the government not have been smart enough to figure out a way to release or destroy, eliminate the waste they are and have created....isn't there a balance of some sorts???discover space-save space!
GOD BLESS YOU ALL!!!
THANK GOD EARTH IS LOCATED SO FAR FROM THE NEAREST SOLAR SYSTEM THAT WE CAN'T GO THERE WITH OUR ROCKET SYSTEMS TO MESS THEM UP. IT WILL TAKE THE SPEED OF LIGHT TO REACH ANOTHER STAR SYSTEM IN A HUMAN LIFETIME. I HOPE OUR SPACE PROGRAM IS DISMANTLED, AND THE MONEY SAVED IS USED TO HEAL AND CLEAN UP OUR PLANET. THE ONLY ONE WE HAVE.
it would actually be shocking if it was to scale
It does not need to be to scale. It is shocking that humans have learned nothing from our past. No one thought the rivers could get so dirty they would burn. No one thought the air would get so dirty that asthma and lung-related deaths would spike. No one thought we could damage the huge stratosphere of earth and cause climate crisis. But let's just litter space, I sure there is enough space that we won't regret it.
As soon as there is a Space Station, there will be a Rotary Club and they will organize a Clean Up Space Day. Problem solved.
This isn't just an issue with NASA (as someone knee-jerked commented), but an issue with all of the space administrations from different nations or collections of nations.
Also, as the linked article mentioned, "According to Flury, at the end of 2003, there were some 10 000 catalogued debris objects around Earth, comprising:" (Source: http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMHDJXJD1E_FeatureWeek_0.html)
Yes, the original image is a bit exaggerated, but wha's not exaggerated is the number of objects which are circling the Earth and posing a hazard to man-made satellites.
The article continues with, " There are many thousands more uncatalogued objects larger than 1 cm — perhaps more than 50 000; no one really knows the exact count.
Uncatalogued objects include bits of aluminum slag from solid rocket motor propellant and droplets of Sodium-Potassium coolant that escaped from Russian nuclear-powered reconnaissance satellites when they ejected their reactor cores."
This is most certainly a worry, especially if we want to continue having a safe Space program, at least while we are on this planet.
this is not one of our biggest prblems . we have may pollutions that we on earth now we have a greater proble
Eventually, the sun won't be able to get through to us. Then we'll have to worry about a global ice age instead of global warming.
I keep thinking....every single problem on earth can be traced to overpopulation. But nobody wants to say the words.
We won't perish in a ball of fire..........our demise will be brought about by our own stupidity.