More than 130 million units of cosmic garbage rotate around the Earth – usually fragments of spacecraft or satellite operations – and it is expected that this amount will grow.
Every year, one satellite is destroyed by cosmic garbage. In combination with an increase in the frequency of commercial launches, which currently take into account the majority of flights in the orbit of the Earth, there is a threat that such clashes in the future can seriously violate vital satellite services, such as GPS and environmental disasters.
This was discussed at the annual conference from space garbage of the European Space Agency (ECA), Deutsche Welle and Eca Press Service said.
ECA emphasizes that the orbital environment of the Earth is a limited resource and requires urgent measures.
It is noted that the satellites who rotate around the Earth are forced to perform regular maneuvers to avoid clashes with garbage. These maneuvers also affect astronauts at the International Space Station.
Even the smallest fragments of cosmic garbage – the diameter of the millimeter – can cause serious damage to functioning spaceships and satellites.
Thus, ten years ago, the Copernicus Sentinel-1a climatic satellite received a dent with a width of 5 cm from a two-mm fragment of cosmic garbage. This did not affect the work of the satellite, but emphasized the risk of a collision with cosmic garbage.
Large garbage can destroy entire satellites.
One -center of the fragment has the energy of a hand grenade, ”says the leading engineer of the“ clean space ”of the Eca Tiago SaareSh department.
Today, at least a million such large garbage flies on the ground. Each risk of a collision for creating a hundred fragments is the phenomenon of a chain reaction, known as the effect of a cassler, which can make an orbit orbit unusable for use, and, therefore, it will make it impossible to use entire categories of satellites.
Thus, in the recent report of the ECU on the space environment, it was said that in 2024 there were several main fragmentation events, as well as many smaller ones that usually added thousands of new garbage objects.
Over the years of compliance with the formation of cosmic garbage, it gradually improves, especially in the commercial sector, but this is not enough to stop an increase in the amount and volume of cosmic garbage, the report said.
Even without additional launches, the amount of cosmic garbage will continue to grow, since fragmentation events add new garbage objects faster than they can naturally return to the atmosphere, add to ECA.
ECA emphasizes that to prevent the deployment of the chain reaction of the Cessler effect requires active garbage removal.
No mission has achieved such a success, but ECA plans to try it using Mission-Mission-1 in 2028, which will use robotic hands to remove the land of satellite satellite satellite PROBA-1, launched in 2001.
It is noted that space agencies also consider other concepts of the fight against garbage, including:
- The use of a structure similar to a grid for satellites to “catch” from orbit, but it is expensive – and still incorrect – elements of equipment;
- Creation of protocols for decommissioning unused space equipment. Space agencies explore the methods of explosion of outdated equipment using fuel reserves built into future spaceships;
- A technology that allows you to control a return on the basis of an unnecessary spaceship. ECA seeks to introduce the mantra of environmental stability in space – “reduce, re -use, process”;
- The creation of a kind of “road aid” that would renovate the satellites and extend their life.
Source: Deutsche Welle, Eka
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I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.