Where humans lead, trash follows. Space is no exception. Orbiting our planet is an unknown amount of space junk. There is a very real risk of this junk colliding and creating small pieces of debris that go on to damage other satellites. This damage turns into more small debris, setting off a chain reaction of destruction. Low earth orbit would be inundated with these small particles that shred larger satellites. It would be nearly impossible to launch a satellite into orbit without the junk destroying them. This is known as the Kessler Effect. The movie Gravity was a dramatization of this phenomenon. Once again, our lack of forethought and inability to deal with a known issue until we absolutely have to, has left us vulnerable to a catastrophic future. Dealing with the issue afterward is short sighted and at that point it may be too late. Currently, most satellites degrade in orbit until they burn up in the atmosphere, this can take years and it can still be dangerous to surrounding satellites. The European RemoveDebris mission came up with a few options to reduce the junk in space and recently tested it out. On September 16, the RemoveDebris spacecraft released … Continue reading