Space trash: coming to a space station near you at
15km/s
Evan Canty
Space, as you might know, is really big. There is an
infinite galaxy to explore. Humanity’s final frontier.
For as long as we have been able to look up, humanity
has wanted to explore the stars, something that has been
entirely unreachable until a few decades ago. But
there’s a problem. Space might get really small, really
fast, and it might be our fault. Let me explain.
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This belt of debris would make it impossible for humans
to leave the atmosphere. Anything spacecraft we send up
would just get sliced, diced, and added to the growing
shrapnel cloud.
The orbital debris moves fast, at around 15km/s. For
perspective, that is roughly ten times faster than a
bullet. I know you might be thinking: “Wait, if there’s
little to no resistance in low earth orbit, and just one
collision of two satellites could produce thousands of
really expensive bullets, then what’s to stop those pieces
of debris from shredding other satellites into even more
pieces of debris?”
If you were thinking exactly that, yes, you’re exactly right. You’ve described “Kessler syndrome”, in which a single collision results in a chain reaction that blankets our planet in a thick belt of debris. This belt of debris would make it impossible for humans to leave the atmosphere. Anything spacecraft we send up would just get sliced, diced, and added to the growing shrapnel cloud.
Kessler’s apocalyptic ideas of the debris belt went mostly unheeded, though, as the United States continued in the space race against the Soviet Union. But the space race is over, and space is a lot more accessible to really rich people, particularly Elon Musk. With the launch of Starlink, Musk’s satellite internet service, he launched over 5000 mass-produced satellites, and he has poorly managed them. In December of 2021, China’s Tiangong Space Station almost had a full-on collision with Starlink satellites multiple times. Needless to say, that close of a call is not a good thing at all.
A picture of China's Tiangong Space Station.
Seeing how space is slowly becoming more commercialized and polluted, you might be wondering “What can we do?” The solution will not be easy, that is for sure. Space cleanup programs would require international cooperation–which is a rare feat–and lots of funding. That’s why we need to think about Kessler syndrome now, so we can prioritize it and make sure that later, when we do have the resources, we can clean our orbit and reach for the stars together.
Sources:
https://web.archive.org/web/20110515132446/http://webpages.charter.net/dkessler/files/Collision%20Frequency.pdf.
https://web.archive.org/web/20000901071135/http://ston.jsc.nasa.gov/collections/TRS/_techrep/TP-1999-208856.pdf