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Once in space, the biggest threat to astronauts and spacecrafts is space debris. Space debris, also known as space junk or space waste, are potentially dangerous and useless objects in Earth’s orbit. These objects are either man-made (such as spent stages of rockets, broken off pieces of spaceships or equipment, old unusable satellites, and even small flecks of paint) or natural (such as space rocks, ice, and dust). The problem with space debris is how hazardous they can be if they impact a spacecraft or even a spacewalking astronaut.
Scientists have been worrying about space trash since the 1970s. Humans have placed thousands of objects into orbit since Sputnik, and some of those old satellites and ejected rockets are slowly breaking apart. As pieces collide with each other at high speeds and shatter, they create more debris. There are approximately 11,000 pieces of space debris in Earth’s orbit that are larger than three inches and can be currently detected. And there are probably millions or even billions of smaller pieces of space debris that are unable to be detected. Despite the size of these objects, they all have the potential to be lethal because of the speed that they are traveling, especially since most space debris are traveling hundreds or thousands of kilometers per hour. For instance, it has been found that even a single grain of sand has caused serious damage to the heat shields of the space shuttles. Now imagine the catastrophic and deadly impact if a piece of space debris punctures an astronaut’s spacesuit, cracks a window on the space station, or blasts a hole in a spaceship. Space junk is a classic example of the Tragedy of the Commons, the economic term for when a bunch of individual agents, for example shepherds, use a common good, like a nice grazing patch. Each individual shepherd acts according to his or her self-interest, allowing their flock to eat grass, grow fat, and produce milk. But too many individuals acting this way will overgraze the common good, destroying its use for everyone. NASA and other space agencies have been treating the orbits around Earth in exactly this way, operating under the “Big Sky theory.” Space is huge and the chances of anything running into anything else are small. Eventually, most things will drop back down, burning up in our atmosphere or splashing down harmlessly in the ocean.
Mitigation methods: Currently, there are three methods to mitigate against space junk.
First, old satellites are now starting to be returned to Earth where they will hopefully completely burned up in the atmosphere or crash into unpopulated areas. However, some satellites, such as the Hubble Telescope, have no such plans for removing them from orbit. Another piece of space debris could hit these satellites, cause an explosion, and create millions of more pieces of space junk. These pieces of space debris could literally become dangerous and lethal shrapnel.
Another solution is to put shielding on spaceships and space stations. For instance, the International Space Station is the most fortified habitat ever in space. Unfortunately, not all parts of the space station, such as the solar panels and windows, are able to be shielded. Also, spacesuits have almost no protection from space debris.
The final solution for space junk is avoidance. Most spacecrafts and satellites are able to move in order to avoid being impacted from space debris. However, since only objects that are larger than 3 inches can be detected, there are a huge number of objects that are not known and thus can never be avoided.
Innovative solutions: There are lots of bright ideas for cleaning up debris, but countries often wrangle over how to pay for them.
Since it is not economically feasible for a spacecraft to pick up all the pieces of space junk, then a laser could be used that could vaporize or redirect space debris back to Earth. This laser would probably be most easily installed on the International Space Station, since it will need a huge supply of power that the space station could be upgraded to provide. Since only large objects can be detected and redirected by the laser, this solution would be limited.
Create massive blobs of aerogel or lightweight surfaces with huge surface areas so that space debris would impact and be stuck to. Since these objects would be in a slow decaying orbit, this would in affect be a large vacuum cleaner removing potential dangerous materials from space. Furthermore, aerogel would be most cost effective to launch into orbit and burn up completely in Earth’s atmosphere.
By: Dr. Vivek Rana ProfileResourcesReport error
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