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Space is a gigantic open-air trash can

2021-05-30T16:37:05.966Z


The European Space Agency is sounding the alarm on the gigantic garbage can of debris above the Earth that could return


“Imagine driving on a road that has more broken cars, bicycles and vans lining the street than working vehicles.

This is the scene with which our satellites are confronted in Earth orbit, ”explains the European Space Agency in its latest report.

Since 1957, nearly 6,000 space launches have resulted in a population in orbit today of over 26,000 tracked objects.

The very last few years have shown significant and unprecedented growth, mainly in small commercial low Earth orbit satellites.

Large constellations are being deployed to promote communication.

The number of launches of satellites orbiting the Earth.

ESA ESA

Today, a total of about 2,800 objects are functional spacecraft.

The others are space debris, that is, objects that are no longer used for nothing.

And there, the finding is distressing.

Most of the objects regularly tracked are fragments linked to explosions, collisions or abnormal events leading to the fragmentation of satellites or rockets.

In addition, there is evidence of a much larger population of debris that cannot be operationally tracked.

Millions of objects above our heads

According to ESA, “an estimated 900,000 objects larger than 1cm and 128 million objects larger than 1mm are expected to reside in Earth's orbits.

"

Except that due to a relative orbital speed of up to 56,000 km / h, debris the size of a centimeter can severely damage or disable an operational spacecraft. "Collisions with an object larger than 10cm will cause catastrophic ruptures, releasing clouds of dangerous debris, some fragments of which can cause further catastrophic collisions that can lead to an unstable debris environment in certain regions of the orbit," warns ESA.

While ESA acknowledges that improvements to avoid waste in space have been put in place in recent years, this is not enough.

"In low earth orbit, some naturally conforming objects burn safely in the atmosphere without intervention."

Likewise, “rocket bodies are being disposed of more and more responsibly.

The largest objects we send into space are now almost all sustainably disposed of, down from less than 20% at the turn of the millennium.

Indeed, more rockets now perform a "controlled re-entry" into the Earth's atmosphere.

Except recently the first stage of this Chinese Long-March 5B rocket ...

Satellites capable of avoiding debris

But ESA, which is working on debris removal missions that will fly to dead spacecraft and debris objects, capture them and bring them to safety by sending them burning in the Earth's atmosphere, or in "orbits of. cemetery ”, however sounds the alarm. "By reaching space, we have brought enormous benefits to Earth, providing technologies that enrich our societies, connect people in ways previously unimagined, and give us an incredible perspective and understanding of our planet," says report adding immediately that “our future could be shattered. We know what will happen if we continue on the current path. "

According to ESA, the functional satellites of tomorrow will need to be able to avoid collisions with debris crossing their path adding that work is underway on an automated system that will ensure that these collisions avoidance while the number number of satellites in orbit continues to increase rapidly.

Source: leparis

All tech articles on 2021-05-30

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