Space Junk: Graveyard of Debris in Low Earth Orbit

credit: https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/space-race-99225b5b-6daa-4e7a-9c81-5945e1de0bc4

Since the dawn of the 1950s, the world has stated a race in the view of not who can conquer the Earth but who can dominate space. During World War 2, the Soviets and States were in a race to launch their own space program. The US spent a massive 257 billion dollars(Adjusted with inflation till 2020) while the Soviets spent around 255 billion dollars(adjusted with inflation till 2020), while the actual figures for the Soviets are not available this is an estimate taken from the assessment of various agencies available online. The race did help us in the form of putting the first satellite in space, humans in space, animals in space, etc. It also allowed us to upgrade to better technology. The Technology from the space race has also been applied to directly improve public safety and reduce the risk of accidents and injury. It acted as a boost for the world economies. While the race between the Soviets and the US might not be there anymore, there are certainly new players in the game. European Space Agency(ESA), Canadian Space Agency(CSA), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency(JAXA), Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO), and China National Space Administration (CNSA) to name a few are in a race with NASA and Roscosmos(Russian Space Agency).

Even the discovery of the signs of water on the moon’s south pole turned out to be a space race so did going to Mars. While ISRO has been a great sport being the first to go to Mars in their first attempt and being the first to land on the moon’s South Pole, we cannot stress enough the need to increase awareness of the space junk that follows after these races are put to halt. The amount of space junk that is currently orbiting our planet, According to the data, there are roughly 14,000 small, medium, and large debris objects floating about in low Earth orbit as of May 2023. And this is not counting the millions of tiny debris fragments that are too small to be tracked.

Some objects in lower orbits of a few hundred kilometers can return quickly. They often re-enter the atmosphere after a few years and, for the most part, they'll burn up - so they don't reach the ground. But debris or satellites left at higher altitudes of 36,000 kilometers - where communications and weather satellites are often placed in geostationary orbits - can continue to circle Earth for hundreds or even thousands of years. These satellites will become inactive after their lifespan is complete.

credit: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-real-image-of-Earth-seen-from-space-including-space-junk

What is a bigger concern is that some space agencies try to use missiles to destroy these satellites, but they only make matters worse. The impact of the missiles will shatter the satellite into a million small shards of metal moving at high speeds, which will further make more space junk but this time something so small that it cannot be tracked. These small pieces will make future rocket/satellite launches even more difficult.

Why is this such a big problem you might ask? It has mighty effects on our space exploration missions while also being a problem for the space stations present in the low earth orbit. These debris move at a speed of 12000Km/s some go faster some go a little slower, but the impact they will have if collide with another inactive or active satellite is disastrous.

ISS(International Space Station) performs hundreds of collision avoidance maneuvers to keep the ISS and its inhabitants(astronauts) safe.

credit: https://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/photo-gallery/

Companies like Starlink aim to get full internet access across the globe which will require more satellites and would also result in more number of these collision avoidance maneuvers. We not only have polluted our low Earth orbit, but we have debris/inactive tech junk on the moon too. Luna 2 (USSR), Ranger 4 (USA), Hiten (Japan), SMART-1 (Europe), Chandrayaan-1 (India), Chang'e-1 (China), Beresheet (Israel), etc.

How to tackle this problem:

Many people have suggested various methods to work through this massive roadblock in the space exploration future of our Planet. Some of them involve using nets to de-orbit large satellites, we could even use lasers to heat up these satellites, increasing their atmospheric drag so that they fall out of orbit. A group of scientists at the University of Surrey did the RemoveDEBRIS mission with the very aim of catching debris in the net.

Conclusion: Space junk is not a small problem, while the implication of our actions may seem negligible the result from it could put a stop to space exploration itself. We could become trapped in our planet. We need to work on reducing space debris before further space programs, in my opinion, all the agencies should tie up together for this problem and work out a way.