All you need to know about space pollution
Hundreds of man-made machinery are revolving around our planet Earth from lifeless satellites like nuts and bolts by putting our functional satellites at risk. I will try to explain this interesting topic in the simplest form and as per my understanding. :)
What is space pollution?
Space pollution means space junks or space debris left by us in space and they are revolving around Earth. All the satellites which are broken, not broken are simply hanging out in space and they do not have any path to go. These orbiting space debris can cause a threat to both manned and remotely-controlled spaceships or satellites as well as the Earth’s residents.
How much space junk is present?
The Sputnik 1, was the world’s first satellite and launched by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957. For more information, see Sputnik launched
From the beginning of the space era in 1957, thousands of rockets, satellites, spacecraft and man-made machinery have been sent to space. There was no plan for what to do with these things when their life will be at the end. Since then, the numbers are increasing day by day and causing collisions and explosions in space. A large amount of space junks in Earth orbit has a total mass of more than 9300 tonnes. Phewwww! Can’t even imagine.
However, not all entities are still present. More than 28,000 (as of April 2020) are tracked by the Space Surveillance Networks and maintained in their catalogue. For the latest updates and number, see Space debris by the numbers
What is the Kessler syndrome?
The Kessler syndrome is a theory explained by Don Kesseler in 1978, who is the NASA space debris expert. He stated that if there is too much space junk present in the Earth’s orbit, it will cause a chain reaction which means more and more debris will collide with each other and it will create new space junk and it will reach the point where the Earth’s orbit will become unserviceable.
How do we track the space junk or debris?
The United States Department of Defense tracks and monitors the debris with the help of the Space Surveillance Network. They detect, monitors, tracks and maintain records of the man-made items revolving around our planet Earth using the global network of telescopes.
Is there any way to clean the space junk?
The United Nations has asked all the companies to remove their satellites from Earth’s orbit within 25 years after the end of their mission. To rectify this issue many organizations around the globe proposed some good solutions. For more information, see Space Junk Clean-Up: 7 Wild Ways to Destroy Orbital Debris and 9 Concepts for Cleaning Up Space Junk
One of the solutions is you can drag the non-functional satellites back into the atmosphere where they will burn up. Or You can fire the laser beams to get up the satellite which will increase its atmospheric drag and it will fall out of orbit. We can use these solutions only for the large satellites which are orbiting Earth. We can not pick up the smaller pieces of debris such as nuts, bolts, and bits of metal.
What next?
We have to seriously think about space pollution and consider our space environment as a shared and very limited resource. If we keep on increasing and creating space debris then it will lead us to the Kessler Syndrome.
The ESA (European Space Agency) is working on the guidelines for the long-term sustainability of outer space activities and how can we reduce the environmental and health impacts.
You can find out more about ESA’s Space Debris and Clean Space programmes.
Some fascinating space debris facts:
- More than 100 trillion objects smaller than one-hundred-thousandth of an inch which is like 1 micron can complete the revolution of the globe.
- In the year 2014, the International Space Station had to change an orbit 3 times to avoid the collision with debris.
- The space debris concept was displayed in the movie Gravity.
Additional resources:
I had fun drafting this blog and I hope you will enjoy this article.
