Is Space Junk Still A Problem?

critic666 asks: "I've been doing some research on space junk (trash orbiting the Earth), but most of the discussion about it seems to come from 1996 - 98. The only recent thing I've seen about space junk is from an Aug 20, 2000 article on NASA creating a laser "broom" to cleanup this trash. Does anyone know if anything's really being done about space junk now, is it just kind of a static issue, or have we solved the problem?" Most of Earth's "artificial satellites", as I like to call them, have orbits that will eventually destabilize, so that they'll eventually burn up on re-entry, however, this doesn't mean that there isn't still quite a lot of junk up there. NASA maintains a database of most of the larger pieces and does track them via radar and the Johnson Space Center maintains their own page on the subject. You might want to check out the FAQ. Thoughts?

Comments

Very much so!

[jd]

Satelites in more distant orbits may or may not destabilize. Even if a satelite is supposed to, that doesn't mean it will. Impacts from space junk and/or more natural space debris may well scatter fragments into relatively stable orbits.

Then, there's the danger of a chain reaction. One satellite or rocket fragmenting from a collision, generating enough debris that those fragments will, in turn, hit other objects, and so on.

With systems such as Irridium, the probability of a chain reaction became ludicrously high. And, once something like that happens, you don't have anywhere to -put- a "space broom". Essentially, Earth would become isolated by an impenetrable barrier of it's own making.

Then, there is the hazard of the tinier fragments of debris. A fleck of paint can leave a sizable crater in the Space Shuttle's windows. You don't need to be a mathematician to work out the implications of even slightly larger debris striking something like the ISS.

(A ball-bearing could probably punch straight through it, at the speeds we're talking about. And don't believe for a moment that NASA is capable of tracking -every- object that small in orbit.)

With many satellites with their own fuel systems, etc, to keep them correctly positioned, you'd better hope that there are fail-safes installed. With space becoming ever-more crowded, we don't need rogue satellites playing astro-pinball.

Last, but not least, we're in a period of violent solar activity. One -really- good flare could do some really interesting things to the less sturdy sattelites up there.

Not that it really matters, of course. NASA's a lame duck, the ESA has always been into commercial stuff, and nobody else is even remotely close to putting men into space. So the hazards to people are minimal.

The hazards to technology-addicts, though, is extreme. Take out even two GPS satellites, a pager satellite and a TV satellite, and you'd turn most of North America into gibbering idiots.

(The next Ask Slashdot will be debating how you'd tell the difference.)