Is Space doomed forever?
Modern-day civilization is intertwined with satellites orbiting space to facilitate our communication, GPS navigation, weather forecasting, imaging, research, and much more. Over the recent past, we have seen an exponential increase in the number of satellites as well as space debris in low earth orbit.
I can’t wait to live that day where I can get connected to the internet from anywhere on Earth. This will enable our society to harness maximum potential out of the internet and bring upward mobility to billions around the world.
However, in the quest to put more satellites in orbit, we ended up with a lot of space debris rotating at tens and hundreds of kilometers per second. Yes, you read that right, per second. NASA and other space agencies around the world are constantly tracking over 10,000 objects in low earth orbit over one centimeter and there are many more much smaller than that. One centimeter in diameter does not seem to be a lot but the amount of momentum it possesses may result in catastrophic events.
The entry of private companies into space has kickstarted the second space race. Companies are racing to put satellites in low earth orbit and will continue doing so for the foreseeable future. Think about the number of components and mechanism that goes into a satellite and its launch. Some critical component is bound to fail at some point according to Murphy’s law. This may result in a collision which will trigger a chain reaction causing the low earth orbit to be littered with space debris that we have no way to clean up at the moment.
Astronomers are also facing challenges as the increased number of satellites adds noise to the images taken from the telescope here on earth. Space warfare is also in its infancy. A missile targeted at satellites could bring down critical infrastructures.
So, is space doomed forever? Well, it’s too early to say. However, we do need to come up with updated frameworks and protocols for low earth orbit for the increased traffic of the second space race. There needs to be a global effort and investment to come up with a solution to clean up space debris. Just like the earth, we need to start thinking and acting on space and orbital sustainability.
