The picture above shows space junk being tracked by NORAD radar
This is one of the most depressing pieces of news I’ve read in awhile. It means the beginning of the end for space travel, and possibly global cooling. The New York Times reports in an article on the amount of space junk in Earth Orbit that we may be past a point of no return.
According to NASA officials, the amount of discarded rocket and satellite debris we’ve put into Low Earth Orbit is at critical levels. Recently nearly 1000 new pieces resulting from testing the new Chinese anti-satellite weapon put the amount of space debris that is trackable, at over 10,000 pieces, and there may well be 100’s of thousands of smaller bits. With that much space junk, its now only a matter of time before collisions between two large objects (like a couple of old rocket boosters) will start an uncontrollable cascade of new collisions.
The litter is now so bad that, even if space-faring nations refrained from further interference, collisions would continue to create more clutter just above our atmosphere. It is like a nuclear fission chain reaction, with each bit of junk crashing into another breaks off dozens more bits, which careen in new orbits, eventually becoming a cloud of metallic debris like a shell around earth. As the bits get pulverized to smaller and smaller pieces, it may also become dense enough to start blocking a significant amount of sunlight. I’m not joking when I say it will solve the global warming problem, but it could also create a whole other series of climate problems too that may take centuries to solve.
Space debris is a very difficult problem to deal with, and some say its impossible. It will likely hinder future space exploration. Your kids and grandkids may never know the wonder of space exploration or even space tourism. It means the International Space station may come down, and the shuttle may never fly again if the problem gets worse.
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