William Atkins
Friday, 13 February 2009 21:42
Science -
Space
Page 4 of 6
The major collision of these two satellites, previously in orbit about the Earth, emphases the need to clean up the orbits of space debris.
Also called space junk and orbital debris, space debris are objects in orbit around the Earth that are no longer used by humans.
In other words, we have an orbital space junkyard full of needles, spend solid rock motors, coolant, defunct satellites, paint flakes,
STS-126 tool bag, pliers, wrench, toothbrush, garbage bags, cameras by Michael Collins and Sunita Williams, glove by Ed White and many other things that have been unintentionally and deliberately discarded (thrown away) out there in space.
The U.S. Strategic Command reports that it regularly tracks about 13,000 objects considered space debris in order to not mislabel such objects as possible missiles from hostile countries.
Such space debris, besides causing security problems to the United States and other countries around the world, also poses a serious threat to the safety of astronauts in space. It also makes it dangerous to other satellites orbiting in space and to people on Earth when such objects survive their sometimes fiery plunge through Earth’s atmosphere and onto the surface of the Earth.
One person has been confirmed as having been hit by a human-made object descending from Earth. A Oklahoma woman in 1997 was struck on the shoulder by a piece of metallic material from a defunct 1996 Delta II rocket. [International Astronautical Federation: "
Space Debris"]
A simulation of the amount of space debris at various orbits around the Earth is found at The Global Education Project’s website “
Space Debris.”
AstronomyCast.com provides many articles on “
Space Junk.” It makes an interesting comment on human activities and their junk, whether beneath the Earth, on the surface of the Earth or above the Earth.
Please read page five for this comment, along with comments made by this author on the growing issue of danger to human lives from space junk.
