Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Photo illustration by Thomas Gaulkin for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ January 2022 issue (used with permission)

Earth is encircled by human-made rubbish and the problem is worsening every year.

Space debris experts say nearly 130 million pieces of orbital flotsam are zipping around our planet, high-speed leftovers from rocket stage explosions, abandoned satellites, as well as bits and pieces of junk from space hardware deployments.

Toss into this meandering mess the remains of deliberate demolition of spacecraft by way of anti-satellite weapons testing.

Clutter in the cosmos.
Credit: Used with permission: Melrae Pictures/Space Junk 3D

Cascading effect

All this space clutter means increased risk of collisions that generate more debris – better known as the Kessler syndrome.

That cascading effect was detailed back in 1978 by NASA scientists, Donald Kessler and Burton Cour-Palais in the seminal space physics paper “Collision frequency of artificial satellites: The creation of a debris belt.”

But fast forward some 47 years later to this year.

Go to my new Space.com story – “Space debris led to an orbital emergency in 2025. Will anything change?”—at:

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/space-debris-led-to-an-orbital-emergency-in-2025-will-anything-change