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Orbiting Space Junk Poses Danger To Earth’s Astronauts

Image via Pixabay

When rockets were first launched into space, beginning in 1957 and occurring with increasing frequency through the 1960s, the area around earth was clear, pristine, and empty. Today, the view from orbit now includes large amounts of space debris — old satellites, parts from rockets, even specks of paint — which sour the view and can even be quite dangerous.

And yes, the tiny paint flecks do indeed pose a serious risk, because they orbit at such high speeds, typically up to 17,500 miles per hour but sometimes up to twice this speed.

“Even tiny paint flecks can damage a spacecraft when traveling at these velocities,” NASA reported, continuing “in fact a number of space shuttle windows have been replaced because of damage caused by material that was analyzed and shown to be paint flecks,” reported CNET.

These pieces of orbiting garbage have passed the annoying and become outright dangerous. At this very moment, there are more than 21,000 bits of space debris larger than 3.9 inches orbiting the Earth.

Stuart Grey, a lecturer at University College London, made use of data from a group known as Space-Track.org, which monitors space debris, to build a model of just how much we’ve littered into the Earth’s orbit.

These pieces of orbiting garbage have passed the annoying and become outright dangerous. At this very moment, there are more than 21,000 bits of space debris larger than 3.9 inches orbiting the Earth.

Anti-litter efforts are afoot, however. The U.S. Air Force is working on a new system which will allow them to track space junk. It’s not functional yet, but it will be by 2019, say the reports. Perhaps the most entertaining method comes from a Swiss lab, where researchers are working on a spacecraft that will gobble up smaller satellite in orbit, much like Pac-Man eating up dots, reports the International Business Times.

One thing is clear — many people — both governments and NGOs such as Space X alike — feel that the increasing amount of space debris represent a physical danger to the Earth’s space efforts, and must be dealt with.

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