{"id":26243,"date":"2016-12-20T00:50:28","date_gmt":"2016-12-20T00:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yaabot.com\/?p=26243"},"modified":"2016-12-20T00:50:28","modified_gmt":"2016-12-20T00:50:28","slug":"space-junk-needs-our-attention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entropymag.co\/space-junk-needs-our-attention\/","title":{"rendered":"Space Junk Needs Our Attention"},"content":{"rendered":"
As of 2013 , there are more than 170 million objects smaller than 1 cm in orbit around our planet. About 670,000 objects range between 1 to 10 cm, while about 29,000 larger debris are also circling the Earth. That’s a lot of space junk. Fortunately, space is big. Or so we’ve thought. Soon, space junk will be a bigger problem that’ll need urgent solutions.<\/p>\n
Also Read:<\/strong> Bringing Back Space Culture<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Space junk includes space debris, junk, and waste, litter of defunct manmade objects in space (old satellites, spent rocket stages, and fragments from disintegration, erosion and collisions – including those caused by debris itself). During the 1970s and 1980s, the Soviet Union launched a number of naval surveillance satellites as part of its RORSAT (Radar Ocean Reconnaissance Satellite) program. The satellites, which were equipped with a BES-5 nuclear reactor to power their radar systems were normally boosted into a medium-altitude graveyard orbit. But several failures resulted in radioactive material reaching the ground or water. Satellites which were disposed of had an estimate 8% chance of puncture and coolant release over a 50-year period. The coolant freezes into droplets of solid sodium-potassium alloy, forming dreadful other debris.<\/p>\n