May 14, 2025
Science

The number of ‘space junk’ left over from space travel is more than 30,000: but is this a danger?

  • March 30, 2024
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Experimentally, many advances have been made in discovery and technology. However, the truth is that rockets and satellites launched since the 1950s are now causing mayhem and even

The number of ‘space junk’ left over from space travel is more than 30,000: but is this a danger?

Experimentally, many advances have been made in discovery and technology. However, the truth is that rockets and satellites launched since the 1950s are now causing mayhem and even mayhem in Earth’s orbit. Danger starts to create.

Now in orbit around our planet no longer functional thousands In addition to the dead satellite, there are also remains of rockets launched over the years. All this waste, called “Space Debris”, poses problems for exploration.

Thousands of pieces were scattered into space by the collision of American and Russian commercial satellites alone.

Kessler syndrome

Sometimes there is a crash in space due to a rocket launch or because a decommissioned satellite doesn’t bother to be shot down. The amount of debris increased. This waste, which consists of about 30,000 pieces of scrap metal, including pieces the size of a bus, is intended to remain in Earth’s orbit and is increasingly being used for space travel and exploration. an increasing difficulty continues to form.

One of the major examples of the Kessler syndrome, which greatly increases the amount of accumulated waste and shows how dangerous decommissioned satellites can actually be, is the incident that occurred in 2009. There was a big clash. Cosmos 2251, an active American satellite called Iridium 33 that was out of commission but still in orbit, collided at right angles with the Russian commercial satellite Cosmos 2251, causing the spread of more than 3,200 pieces of debris that would pose a danger to space.. Unfortunately, more than half of these pieces are rubble for at least a hundred years It was also said that it would remain in orbit.

The number of junk in space has reached 30,000 in twenty-four years and the number is rising at an alarming rate.

space debris space debris

While 8,000 pieces of debris were registered in 2000, this number will increase to 20,000 in 2019 and 2023. It reached up to 30,000. According to NASA eight tone will be able to find Although some of these leftovers are the size of a baseball and some are bigger if you picture them a huge pile of garbage You can’t stop dreaming.

The most frightening thing is that as interest and support for space travel increases, so does this number. that it will continue to grow. As many as 12,000 new satellites could be launched into space every year over the next decade.

The SpaceX company increased the number of satellites with Starlink to provide faster internet connections.

spacex rocket

SpaceX’s space-based Starlink system aimed to increase Internet access as quickly as possible. by the US more than 15.3 billion dollars The funded SpaceX sent a total of five thousand satellites into space at regular intervals for this system will continue to send. Thanks to this system, users of the Starlink internet can now 100Mb per second You can have internet fast enough to transmit data over the internet band.

Do debris and waste left in space pose a hazard or will they continue to do so in the future?

Although it does not pose a potential danger to life on Earth, it can be affected by collisions that have occurred or may occur in space. as their numbers increase It is predicted that it could become dangerous. Rockets launched into space and satellites sent danger of collision and this probability seems likely to continue to rise to the point where it could become dangerous.

Another way to avoid collisions is through constant maneuvering. NASA has identified thousands of devices that could potentially damage satellites or spacecraft in orbit. detect space debris. But the dangerous connection between space debris and satellites persists, no matter how hard we try to prevent new ones. to be continued.

Sources: McKinsey, Natural History Museum, Evreka

Source: Web Tekno

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