No Room in Space: The Growing Space Junk Problem
At 2,000 kilometers above the ground, a junkyard with hundreds of millions of pieces of human-made space debris circles our planet. And it's getting bigger.
While the world used to send about 80 to 100 satellites into orbit each year, that number has grown to around 2,000 being launched in 2022 alone.
From parts of rockets to flakes of paint, the debris that clutters Earth's orbit travels at speeds of around 7 to 8 kilometers a second. These can cause great damage — and create even more debris — if objects collide.
If key satellites are hit by debris, navigation and communication services could be disrupted across the world.
And while even the smallest pieces of space debris can cause damage to satellites and spacecraft in orbit, humans on Earth may be at risk of harm too.
Debris that enters the Earth's atmosphere can fall to the ground at high speeds. In 2022, parts of a SpaceX spacecraft were found littered across an area of New South Wales, Australia, after an uncontrolled return to Earth.
The Pentagon's Space Surveillance Network currently tracks around 27,000 pieces of orbital debris that are 5 centimeters or larger in size. But is there a way of cleaning up this space junk without it returning to Earth?
Space technology startup ThinkOrbital is designing a satellite that it hopes will be able to catch space debris and even process it, turning it into aluminum powder that could be used as spacecraft fuel.
