{"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

\"yaabot_spacejunk_4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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The Why<\/h2>\n

Space junk accumulation has happened due to a variety of reasons.<\/p>\n

There are a few \u2018universal orbits\u2019 which keep spacecraft in particular rings. These are types of Low Earth Orbits. The closest are sun-synchronous orbits that keep a constant angle between the sun and the orbital plane. They cross over the Polar Regions. Orbits are further changed by perturbations (which in LEO include unevenness of the Earth\u2019s gravitational field); hence collisions can occur from any direction.<\/p>\n

At higher altitudes, where air drag is less significant, orbital decay takes longer. Slight atmospheric drag, lunar perturbations, Earth\u2019s gravity perturbations, solar wind and solar wind and solar radiation pressure can gradually bring debris down to lower altitudes (where it decays). Such is the example of the dead spacecraft Vanguard I launched into Medium Earth Orbit (MEO). As of October 2009, it is the oldest man-made object still in orbit. Some more engrossing space debris include<\/p>\n