Space Junk polluting the Space

We, humans, are polluting the Earth for years. Now, the space is like a new frontier to pollute. Actually, the space is not a new place that we are polluting. During the cold war, the USA was afraid that the Russia might damage their undersea cables and destroy their communication with other countries. To avoid this, they wanted to create a communication pathway in the space. In 1961 and 1963, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the US Military sent 480 million copper needles to the space. Their idea was to use those copper needles for radio communication. This ‘Project Needles’ was the early space pollution caused by humans. The pile of space junk is another pollution we have to manage with other existing pollutions. 

(Space Junk - computer generated image by NASA - Wikipedia)

According to the European Space Agency (ESA), there are more than 170 million debris larger than 1mm and 29,000 debris larger than 10cm in the space. These debris are from working and decommissioned satellites and broken pieces of satellites, spacecrafts and rockets. In 2007, China destroyed its FY-1C satellite using an anti-satellite missile. In 2009, Russia’s ‘out of order’ communication satellite Kosmos-2251 was collided with the USA’s communication satellite Iridium 33. This accident created more than 2000 large broken fragments in the space. These two incidents created thousands of space junk. The satellites in the path of space junk have to move away from the debris. Otherwise, the broken debris may severely damage the satellites. The satellites need fuel to move in the space. If the space pollution increases, the satellites need to carry more fuel to move around. 

We are sending lot of satellites to the space than before. Nowadays, the space agencies are sending small satellites into the space. Private companies like SpaceX and Boeing also have entered the space race. It will further increase the space traffic. We need tight regulation to monitor the satellites and space junk. Otherwise, the space pollution will make harder to send satellites and spacecrafts into the space. The US military and Air Force are monitoring the objects in the space using radars. They warn about the possible collisions in advance. The space agencies have plan to burn up the decommissioned satellites by bringing them down to the Earth’s atmosphere. 

A former NASA astronaut, Franklin Chang Diaz is developing a plasma rocket called VASIMR. He and his rocket company, Ad Astra, are dedicated to develop the VASIMR engine for the future interstellar travel. One of his aims is to remove the space debris using his advanced rocket technology. The persons like Diaz and collaboration between the space agencies may reduce or remove the space pollution in the future.