We have been junking up the planet for years, but now the issue of space junk has taken a new meaning and greater importance. Recent collision of 2 satellites and a scare at ISS reinforced the issue. However, getting rid of space junk will be a difficult task ... and the amount of space junk is growing. This could have some serious reprecussions in the future when we might have problems passing this deadly barrier of junk to get into outer space.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7885750.stm

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There are some 17,000 man-made objects orbiting our planet The collision between a US and Russian satellite in space highlights the growing importance of monitoring objects in orbit. It also shows that there are still significant capability gaps in current systems set up for this task. There are about 17,000 man-made objects above 10cm in size that orbit Earth - and the tally is constantly increasing. This in turn raises the risk of collisions between objects. Richard Crowther, an expert on space debris and near-Earth objects, told BBC News: "It is unfortunate but inevitable, first that we would see such a collision in Low Earth orbit, and secondly - given the number of Iridium satellites in its constellation - more likely that the Iridium system would be affected rather than single satellite systems." The commercial Iridium satellites comprised a network of 66 spacecraft up until the accident. According to Dr Crowther, from the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the group also occupies "a very crowded altitude of low- Earth orbit". Nevertheless, some say the incident was extremely unusual. Although there have been some near-misses and a few minor collisions, this is the first time two intact satellites have crashed into each other. "Even with a constellation of 66 satellites, if you do the geometry there is still a huge amount of space," said Patrick Wood, head of satellites at EADS-Astrium, Europe's biggest space company. The craft were travelling at thousands of kilometres per hour when they crashed into one another. "They were travelling so fast, the timing of any collision would be extremely difficult to predict. But also, the sheer probability of two spacecraft hitting each other is incredibly low," Mr Wood explained. Further threat But Richard Crowther says the debris could now threaten other Iridium satellites: "Unique to the Iridium system is that all the remaining 65 satellites in the constellation pass through the same region of space - at the poles. "So the debris cloud that is forming as a result of the Iridium satellite breakup will present a debris torus of high (spatial) density at 90 degrees to the equator that all the surviving Iridium satellites will need to pass through." Intact satellites share Earth's orbit with everything from spent rocket stages and spacecraft wreckage to paint flakes and dust. Space debris (Esa) There are some 17,000 man-made objects orbiting our planet The diffuse mist of junk around our planet is the legacy of 51 years of human activity in space. At orbital velocities, even small pieces of space debris can cause serious damage to spacecraft. And both the Americans and Russians have networks of tracking stations to monitor objects. The US military operates 25 centres around the world involved in space surveillance, including one at RAF Fylingdales in the UK. Russia's space surveillance facilities include an "Okno" optical tracking system near Nurek, Tajikistan, and a "Krona" long-range radar and optical tracking centre at Storozhevaya in south-west Russia. China and the European Space Agency (Esa) are developing their own systems. Experts would almost certainly have been tracking the orbits of these two spacecraft. But in addition to the probability of a collision being vanishingly small, information on the positions of objects in space is only approximate, not exact. Infographic (BBC) Radars are generally used to track objects in low-Earth orbit, while optical telescopes are often used to observe objects further away from the Earth. Radio frequency technology - a form of electronic surveillance - can be used to assess whether or not satellites are active. This discipline is known as signals intelligence, or SIGINT for short. An advanced ability to monitor space debris, satellites, near-Earth objects and solar activity is known as Space Situational Awareness (SSA). Many experts see this as a step to space traffic control. But co-operation on such matters between countries are complicated by defence sensitivities. Sharing data can betray the capabilities of a country's sensors. The latest incident has produced the worst field of space debris since China destroyed a defunct Fengyun 1-C satellite with a missile in January 2007. That incident, designed to test an anti-satellite weapon system, produced more than 2,000 separate fragments of debris. Risk assessment On Christmas Eve, the US Air Force notified Esa that a European weather satellite called Metop might be threatened by a piece of debris from the Chinese A-Sat test. Ultimately, no action was taken. But the event highlighted Europe's near-total reliance on the US military for knowing what is going on in space. Nasa has said it considers the threat to the International Space Station (ISS) to be low, but that the orbiting outpost could carry out a collision avoidance manoeuvre if necessary. The ISS flies at an altitude of about 350km (220 miles), well below the point, some 790 km (490 miles) up, where the Russian and US satellites collided. But experts say the Hubble Space Telescope and Earth observation satellites at higher orbits and therefore closer to the collision point, could be at greater risk of damage. "The problem we've got is that there is a debris cloud which is in two slightly different orbits because of the spacecraft. The challenge now is to accurately track that debris cloud," said Patrick Wood.

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This such a non issue. I'm sick of seeing this story everywhere.

Visualize the sheer volume of space these 17,000 things are occupying

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Originally posted by Q5echo This such a non issue. I'm sick of seeing this story everywhere. Visualize the sheer volume of space these 17,000 things are occupying

Its not about the space that these objects are occupying. If they were stationary it would not be a problem at all. But the objects are not stationary, bud. They are travelling at very high speeds and even one of those is enough to cause serious damage to equipment or if striking a shuttle can really complicate things ... This way they pose a huge threat as they cover great areas. A 10cm object travelling at several thousand km/hr is lethal.

And this is not the end of it. By the looks of it, the amount of this junk is going to be increasing.

They said that the chances of collising are one in a million. Well, two satellites collided recently. And launches of some equipment into orbit have already been complicated by threat of these objects in the trajectory of the launch.

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Whenever you go and buy something, you are affecting someone somewhere, be it environment, a person, or a community - you're making a statement with what you buy. So make it a smart choice ... Its a big picture

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Originally posted by Magnetonium They said that the chances of collising are one in a million. Well, two satellites collided recently. And launches of some equipment into orbit have already been complicated by threat of these objects in the trajectory of the launch.

one in a million, huh? NASA is working with 1/100 or 1% chance of catastrophic (i.e. total loss of crew and orbiter) mission failure everytime they launch. >LINK<

this is a non-story, dude.

Ummm I think it's a story and apparently so do others with some foresight about potential commercial space opportunities ... This story was written a few weeks before the ISS incident. Or should we relegate this to the "blah blah why should we care about the environment" file because the economic costs of ignoring the issue are not punching us in the face yet?

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Flying blind Feb 19th 2009 From The Economist print edition The tragedy of the commons meets the final frontier AP THE Earth’s orbit is getting crowded. The past few years have witnessed huge growth in the number of satellites. Unfortunately, wherever civilisation ventures it leaves a trail of rubbish. Of the 18,000 tracked objects travelling around the Earth that are larger than 10cm (4 inches), only about 900 are active satellites. The rest is debris—everything from fragments of paint to entire dead satellites and bits of old rockets. Smashed bits of space equipment orbit along with items dropped by astronauts, including tools and the odd glove. That is quite enough trash, without needlessly creating vastly more of the stuff by smashing up satellites. Yet the destruction of the Chinese Fengyun-1C in an anti-satellite missile test in 2007 accounts for more than a quarter of all catalogued objects in low-Earth orbit. And the collision of an American commercial satellite and a defunct Russian military one has just added thousands more pieces of debris. For the sake of the whole planet, the space industry needs to clean up its act. In space no one can hear you clean Space junk is dangerous. Anything larger than a fleck of paint poses a hazard to the useful working satellites that surround the Earth, and on which the world increasingly depends for communications, broadcasting and surveillance. Space waste is not biodegradable. You cannot sweep it up. Instead, it will stay in orbit for decades, or even centuries, before it eventually falls to earth and burns up. As the pile of rubbish grows, so does the risk of collisions. In the 1970s one NASA scientist pointed out that debris from one collision could go on to create a second, which would create still more debris and more collisions, and so on. Eventually, an entire orbit would be rendered useless for generations. The orbits around the Earth are too valuable to let this happen. Space is a public common and humanity needs to value it. So it is time to stop so many satellites from flying blind. Although some organisations collect and analyse data on potential collisions, they are not always precise and there are gaps in their knowledge—as the recent collision has shown. The European Space Agency has said it will encourage space agencies to share more information. It will also establish standards for working more closely with America. But that is too modest. What is needed is an international civil satellite-awareness system that would provide everyone from small governments to business with the information they need to operate safely. To create such a system cheaply, however, requires countries to pool information from their separate ground sensors. The system should lay down the rules of the road, such as who has to give way. All space-faring countries should comply with international guidelines to minimise the amount of debris created by launches. There is a strong case for a moratorium on debris-creating anti-satellite tests. And satellite-launchers should be obliged to buy insurance to cover the risk of extra costs before they venture into space, rather as car-drivers must before they take to the road. One such cost arises when a satellite has to take evasive action and thereby uses up fuel, reducing its life in orbit. This plan need not be expensive, but it faces one big difficulty. Because orbit is open to anyone with a launch-rocket handy, some countries may be tempted to let everyone else bear the costs of precaution while they reap the benefits. The space powers can use all sorts of levers to bring such recalcitrants round, from access to technology to moral pressure. Ultimately, though, if free riders refuse, it is important that the resulting stink does not block an agreement altogether. Do not let the mess on the ground exacerbate the mess in the skies above.

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Retro ...

Last edited by occrider on Mar-13-2009 at 07:02

it's estimated 30,000 to 80,000 tons of naturally occurring space material come through the atmosphere every year. some 20,000 est. meterorites make it to the earth's surface every year...and thats the shit we don't track that gets pulled in off similar orbits.

if we tracked an order of magnitude more than the 17,000 objects we currently are in the literal millions and millions of cubic miles of space they reside in it, collision probabilities still wouldn't increase 1/100th of 1%.

could the Chinese stop blowing shit up in orbit? yes. can we be a little more carefull with our tool bags? of course. is this an ever increasing clear and present danger? anything is if your outlook is long enough.

I am glad that at least occrider cares about this issue.

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Whenever you go and buy something, you are affecting someone somewhere, be it environment, a person, or a community - you're making a statement with what you buy. So make it a smart choice ... Its a big picture

Russia first man in space so legally (international law) owns space.

US government should pay to clear up the mess they made in our space, compensate us and then take down their satellites from our territory.

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VictorJukov

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Originally posted by VictorJukov Russia first man in space so legally (international law) owns space. US government should pay to clear up the mess they made in our space, compensate us and then take down their satellites from our territory.

Americans claimed they "won" the Cold War competition in space. Yet today their shuttle technology is crumbling fast, and without the Russian Soyuz system - which is nearly 40 YEARS old - but fully functional and effective (and much cheaper, I must add), the International Space Station would be fucked now.

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Whenever you go and buy something, you are affecting someone somewhere, be it environment, a person, or a community - you're making a statement with what you buy. So make it a smart choice ... Its a big picture

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Originally posted by Magnetonium Americans claimed they "won" the Cold War competition in space. Yet today their shuttle technology is crumbling fast, and without the Russian Soyuz system - which is nearly 40 YEARS old - but fully functional and effective (and much cheaper, I must add), the International Space Station would be fucked now.

Haha!

Funny because it is true!

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VictorJukov