Space Debris and The Problems it Causes

By Nicholas C.

 

 

Have you ever wondered what is above us,  in the depths of space?  Well, there is an assortment of junk. All of the things that we humans launch up there are most of the time left up there, dormant, just waiting to burn up in the atmosphere. What happens if it doesn't come down on Earth and burn up? How will it affect the other rockets that go up there? How can the problem of space junk be fixed?

Space junk is any rubbish left by humans in space. There are various types of

space junk. One is a non-functional spacecraft, which is a spacecraft that has either run out of fuel or energy. When this happens then they are just left up there, but if the user that is using the satellite notices then they will have it crash down in a designated spot in the ocean called “Point Nemo.” It is in an uninhabited part of the South Pacific Ocean. Another type of junk is abandoned launch vehicle stages, which are when a rocket goes up in space and some parts fall off of the capsule. The reason for that is so the rocket doesn't have to carry empty fuel tanks. The third type of space junk is fragmentation debris, which is space objects created during breakups and the products of deterioration.

There are many reasons why space junk is horrible. One reason is that a lot of debris is bigger than a softball, and even a fleck could be going faster than 17,500 miles per hour. In June 2021, a 5-millimeter hole was found in the Canadian arm of the International Space Station, caused by a fleck of paint traveling 10 times faster than a bullet. The piece of debris plowed a hole into the space station's robotic arm. The hole had a diameter of 14 centimeters. Another reason is that if something like a satellite doesn't burn up in Earth's atmosphere then it could be a colossal problem because it could hit land and be a bad day.  Also, fragments of exploded things could hit other satellites and make it harder to research our planet. For example, in 1996 a french satellite hit a french rocket that had exploded a decade earlier.                                                                           

There are many pieces of space junk in Earth's orbit. There is a total of 131,036,500 pieces of junk.  There are 12,720 Satellites in general, 7,810 still in space. There are 2,610 dead satellites (inactive or ran out of fuel) and 5,200 satellites still active.  There are 36,500 objects greater than 10 cm, 1,000,000 objects from greater than one centimeter to ten centimeters, and 130 million objects from greater than one millimeter to 1 centimeter.

There are a few corrections that could be made to stop the problem. One fix is that small space companies like Space X are making returning stages that they can reuse. Other small companies are suggesting that things like special missions could push other satellites up into the graveyard further into the atmosphere. Another thing small companies are suggesting is ground-based lasers to heat one side of a satellite, causing it to shift its orbit and get caught in Earth's atmosphere.

Overall space junk is terrible for space agencies and people. We need to fix space debris or we might be at a halt to space exploration.