"Space: The Escalating Space Debris Crisis" Topic

"Orbital space is dangerous for humans and their machines. There is no atmosphere and it is very cold and full of risks from radiation and small meteorites and space dust. Then there are custom built space satellites of all shapes and sizes. These have proliferated since the 1960d when only a few per year were sent into orbit. These had short lifetimes, though some dead satellites continue in orbit for decades. In addition to the satellites there are many other objects put into orbit by the last stage of the SLV (Satellite Launch Vehicle) which transported the satellite to orbital space. The final insertion of the satellite into a useful orbit usually involves several items bits of equipment that remain in orbit along with the satellite. Over the decades, as more dead satellites and space junk has accumulated up there have been more collisions that create more debris. By the 21st century the accumulation of debris was so great that it had to be tracked and operational satellites had to avoid it. In the last decade the debris problem has become critical and increasingly unavoidable for nations that are sending thousands of new satellites into orbit. Most of the satellites are American but every major nation now regularly puts satellites into orbit. The debris crisis is a problem for everyone using orbital space. The key problem is that there is currently no known technology that can eliminate space debris…."

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