Space Debris Elimination

Space Debris Elimination

Introduction

Humans have been sending object in the form of satellites and rockets in the space since past several decades which has been collecting around the earth for more than half a century. This debris includes old useless satellites, spent rocket stages and other miscellaneous junk and debris orbiting the plant at a speed of 18000 mph. it has been reported that each chunk of debris has been reported to cause serious problems in the way of working of astronauts and satellites. Many space companies and scientists all over the world today are trying to deal with the issue of increased debris and coming up with ways to reduce it so that satellites may operate without any problem and mankind will be able to continue with its research and exploration activities without any more problems.

Discussion

Recently there has been lot of noise in the media regarding reducing space debris that is coming the way of satellites operating in space. Once such example is that of Canada as one of its satellites costing around multi million dollars was at the risk of being struck by debris and junk present in the space. This warning and alter came from US Strategic Command who kept an alerting about this troubling situation. Many mathematical geniuses and experts that are working at the Canadian Space Agency are currently trying to deal with this similar issue of debris coming in the ways of their spacecraft. They tried assessing the chances and possibilities of the spacecraft being hit by the debris. Additionally Canadians faced same problems when conducting its missiles tests, rocket launches and mid orbit collisions. It has been reported that the space agency of Canada recently fired thrusters in order to move up the Radarsat satellites so that they are saved from any type of harm. The director of Canadian Space agency has intimated on the situation of increased space debris which is being further aggravated by the near-misses as he states “The numbers of near-misses are going up, rather alarmingly” (Munro, 2012).

While many scientists working at NASA are worried in their quest of finding life and water on other planets and trying to send their research teams in order to probe the planet of Pluto, Nicholas Johnson is one scientist who is extremely worried about the Kessler Syndrome. This syndrome was names after Donald Kessler and he was the first man to identify and point out the problem of accumulating debris revolving around the earth in the year of 1970. The issue of space debris was basically highlighted through an incident in which there was a collision between two massive pieces of satellites or it can be also referred to as spent booster rockets that slammed together at the speed of 20,000 miles per hour and the result was hundreds of broken pieces. After that one of the pieces collided with another spacecraft which resulted in hundred more pieces. This chain reaction continued which worsened the situation and added to the amount ...