Space pollution, the end of human exploration
By: Panos Kaoukis
Tags: Space, Pollution

Space travel is the most fascinating and challenging adventure humanity has ever attempted. With miniscule knowledge in physics we managed to get to the moon and as technology and science advanced we were able for even more exhilarating successes. We sent robots on Mars, rockets to the end of our solar system and beyond; and even the sattelites in orbit, that we all enjoy their benefits, are products of humanity’s struggle to explore our cold universe. There is one problem though, if we continue not caring about how we explore the universe and how we pollute it, our adventures through it might come to an end.

The problem of Space Debris

Every time a spaceship, satellite or even a small rocket launches into space it leaves a vast amount of tiny, small or big particles behind, the so-called space debris. Right now NASA reports over 27000 small or bigger such objects that traverse our low-earth orbit at speeds higher than 240,000 kilometers per hour. That means that even a particle as big as a grain of sand can nearly destroy a satellite or a sapceship that is in earth’s orbit. These are only the debris that can be tracked. NASA estimates that there are millions of others even smaller objects in low-earth orbit that go with even greater speeds. So, we have turned our orbit into a huge junkyard of useless debris consisting of broken satellites, used rockets and many many more things. But what is the big deal about it?

Low-earth orbit is where all of our satellites, telescopes and space stations are and where we plan them to be in the near future. But, with the speeds that the debris travel in that orbit they make many revolutions of the earth in less than a day and because of their numbers impacts with our functioning space equipment are more likely day by day. Broken sattelites mean no phone calls abroad, no TV signals out of a certain radius, no gps signals, no navigationm no advanced weather data, no asteroid detection and many more that we cannot even think about at the moment. Broken telescopes mean the end of astrophysics as we know it. Broken space stations possibly mean the end of space exploration as we know it and it may cost the lives of everyone that is in the station at the moment. As a matter of fact the International Space Station was nearly hit by debris many times but the astronauts managed to relocate it fast enough so it would not hit the space station. Also, this year (2021) in June a small untrackable piece of debris hit a robotic arm of the space station, Thankfully, it was not severely damaged and it is still functionable.

The Kessler Effect

Many may think that if any of the abovementioned disasters happen we can easily recover the loss in a matter of a few years or even a few months. That is not entirely wrong. We can very easily set up a sattelite or a telescope again, even a space station wouldn’t take much time to be rebuilt if it wasn’t for the Kessler Effect. Every time a small object, smaller than a marble, hits a satellite it completely destroys it, creating thousands of new space debris. Those newly formed debris will then crush with other objects creating more and more debris. So the creation of debris is an exponential function of time. Meaning that impacts with functional satellites, telescopes and space stations are more likely to occur day by day, minute by minute. That is the Kessler Effect. The Kessler Effect also predicts a point of no return. A moment in time that the debris will start growing so exponentially fast that any attempt to reduce them will be futile. The debris will collide with more and more of our technology in space until nothing but space junk will remain and our technology capabilities down on earth will revert back to those in the 70s. And the worst of all, with so many debris out there space travel will be impossible because the risk of debris colliding with the sapceship even before leaving the earth’s orbit. Many scientists believe that we have passed the point of no return, but the majority thinks that we still have time.

Can we do anything about it?

As a matter of fact, fortunatelly yes!

Scientist have come up with a number of solutions to the problem, but only if we have not passe the critical point of no return. Many of them are a little crazy, but some of the most sane ones that are already being tested involve nets, lasers and magnets; and no that is not some script of sci-fi movie.

The huge bet is to take debris down to earth burning them in the atmosphere without creating new ones.

The net method will involve small rockets that by catching the debris with a net will be heavier and so they will fall to the earth burning in the atmoshere. The net method is a bit risky because it has to make a physical connection to the debris and if not designed properly it can destroy parts of it creating more.

The magnet method is a lot safer but more difficult to implement at the moment. It revolves around strong electromagnets that will repel debris back to the earths atmoshere without even risking of detroying them in orbit. The difficulty lies in creating, launching and successfully contolling the magnet. The magnet method can also be used for the disposal of the debris that cannot be tracked as it will repel them as well.

The laser method is also a safer option as it will insatntly vaporize small and even the tiniest objects from a distance and can also be use to shoot down to earth even the biggest of debris.

The only reason we have not successfully implemented any of these solution effectivelly yet, is funding. Goverments until recently did not realize the severity of the problem so our response was delayed. But now more and more understand that we have to make something about it and we have to do it fast.

Conclusion

Space pollution is a very serious problem of the modern human era that may well end life as we know and enjoy it. We must be very careful with how we approach space travel and exploration because we might not be able to do it at all for many centuries. If we want huanity to surpass its limits we must take action fast, before reaching the point of no return.