Green Planet, Green Outer Space
Space junk, space trash, space debris; no matter what we call it, it's very bad news.
Since the beginning of space exploration, scientists have assumed that the vastness of outer space meant we could junk it up with impunity.
It was called the big sky theory. No aeroscientist, in the U.S. or any other country, gave a single thought to the consequences of space pollution.
For all those who use cell phones, GPS devices, watch satellite TV, listen to radio broadcasts, or track the weather, listen up.
The June issue of Wired magazine contains an article written by Evan I. Schwartz, who reports that outer space is polluted by anything from small objects like nuts, to bigger objects like tools, to even bigger objects like defunct satellites, and, wait for it, rocket stages as big as school buses.
As far back as 1978, Donald Kessler, then a NASA scientist now retired, wrote a seminal paper titled "Collision Frequency of Artificial Satellites: The Creation of a Debris Belt." But his concerns were dismissed by aerospace circles and his theory was labeled "Kessler Syndrome" and like a disease, psychological disorder, or abnormal condition, he and his theory were ignored.
Obviously, Kessler's theory is now a reality.
On February 10, 2009, about 500 miles over the Siberian tundra, two satellites crashed. The Iridium 33, which relayed phone calls and Cosmos 2251, a long-retired Russian communication outpost, collided.
For those on earth, this simply meant a few dropped calls on the cell phone, but in space, such a crash created such a great impact, it shattered the satellites into thousands of pieces, which set off a chain reaction of additional crashes.
Satellites damaged by propelling space debris are extremely costly to repair and endanger the lives of astronauts who work on space stations.
The far reaching implications are clear. The U.S. national security might be severely compromised if crucial intelligence cannot be relayed in a timely manner. Military surveillance that protect the lives of U.S. group troops in Afghanistan and anywhere else on this planet will cease.
Continued on the next page
Follow Technorati