Space debris plunges to Earth, burning its way through the atmosphere.
Image credit: The Aerospace Corporation
The European Space Agency (ESA) will premier Space Debris: Is it a Crisis? at the 9th European Conference on Space Debris being held in Bonn, Germany.
As our use of space accelerates like never before, satellites find themselves navigating increasingly congested orbits. Space has become an environment crisscrossed by streams of fast-moving debris fragments – the result from anti-satellite testing to collisions between objects in space.
Reported debris from an expended third-stage of a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) – a medium-lift launcher operated by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
Image credit: Australian Space Agency
Clutter crisis?
“Some spacecraft operators and astronomers have expressed concern about our rapidly increasing and loosely regulated use of space,” notes ESA. “But others insist that Earth’s orbital environment is so large, and that the planet’s atmosphere pulls down and burns up debris fast enough that there is no need to worry about any long-term consequences.”
So, does space clutter really represent a crisis?
ESA’s latest short documentary film on the state of space debris is to be premiered in April 2025.
Meanwhile, go to this trailer at:
https://youtu.be/sRR5f68g3_Q?si=-omcIxj38K5_L-fe