A photo from open sources
University of London professor Stuart Gray decided to attract students’ attention to the problem of clogging the Earth’s orbit and to this end created the most revealing video (note that such schemes created before), which clearly shows how around our planet, since 1957 (the beginning of space exploration), space debris accumulates.
It turns out that humanity has not only thoroughly dirtied the Earth’s surface, but managed in the last half century thoroughly clogging and near-earth orbit. During this time, order was launched seven thousand satellites, of which in active mode today no more than fifteen percent. Everything else is trash.
A photo from open sources
And around the Earth for various reasons, not only spent satellites, and about thirty thousand fragments the size of more than ten centimeters, almost a million fragments from one to ten centimeters and about two hundred million tiny fragments – less than one centimeter. And all of them, without exception, represent danger to existing satellites, ISS, future space apparatuses and stations.
Who has to deal with space debris
Of course, the video presented by the professor is conditional, since the size of the debris on a scale is not respected, but the picture itself catastrophic clogging of the Earth’s orbit, which could be detrimental affect not only space exploration, primarily on the functioning of many earthly devices that are increasingly depend on the operation of satellites, shown extremely realistic.
A photo from open sources
Stuart Gray did not accidentally show all this to students – the future to scientists on whom it will depend on whether earthlings will be able to solve this problem, that is, to clear the planet’s orbit from space debris. Today there are no such technologies yet, all proposed projects to combat debris and spent satellites are too expensive. At this, every year in orbit appears an additional one hundred – one hundred fifty tons of garbage. It is no coincidence that in 2012 the ISS for this reason was even launched into a higher orbit to prevent collision with debris, in particular from a Japanese satellite.
If humanity now loses a thousand for this reason operating satellites, only by the most conservative estimates is cost the planet hundreds of billions of dollars, not counting those losses that will follow mediocre. But surely unforeseen costs and even disasters that as a rule, nobody can take into account …
ISS
