by kate |
In the July issue of National Geographic it was reported that the Kessler Syndrome may just come to fruition. First described in the 1970s by Donald Kessler, the Kessler Syndrome takes place when space orbits become too polluted by various satellites, tethers, ecetera that these items cause a crash of astronmical proportions – no pun intended.
A collision has already occured, the two pieces of hardware that collided created over 2,000 pieces of debris to orbit the earth. Some preventative measures were taken by the United Nations, for example, no country is allowed to use old satellites as space target practice – huh, sounds logical.
However, even with prevenative measures scientists predict that a major collision will happen every 5 years or so. Researchers are discussing various ways to clean up this trash – everything from an electrical wire to drag the trash from space to the Earth’s atmosphere to burn it up all the way to a space garbage collector in the shape of a collector satellite that would dump the trash into what is called a ‘death spiral.’
It is obvious to me that we, humankind, have now crossed the line from polluting the earth that we live on including the water (remember the Pacific Gyre?), mountains, and air surrounding it – to polluting the entire solar system. How are we going to find a way to clean up space when we can’t even find a way to clean up our act here? Let’s hope the space program and the United Nations can instill some sustainable practices while still learning more about the big old wide world out there…
Want to learn more about the litter in outerspace? Check out National Geographic’s Space Trash Quiz.
(Nasa Orbital Debris, National Geographic Magazine, 2010, pp. 30-34)
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