Astrodynamicist Moriba Jah is increasingly worried about the space trash left in orbit. He claims massive debris floating in our orbit could soon begin to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere, resulting in significant death and destruction. We’re talking school bus-sized pieces of debris. And that’s a very worrying thing.
Researchers already say that Earth may soon come to have rings like Saturn surrounding it. Only made out of our space junk instead of rock and dust. A pretty ugly thought when you consider we already have a plastic island gumming up our oceans. Several countries have their own space programs, which has contributed to the amount of debris floating just above our atmosphere.
But there’s evidence pointing to Russia as the country to blame for the increased amount of detritus. Their alleged anti-satellite weapons test last year sent a massive amount of garbage floating around our planet. Jah also states that space programs are in danger of being jeopardized as well. Hunks of space trash could collide with spacecraft carrying passengers, bringing catastrophic results.
Jah says that Earth’s upper atmosphere must be treated as a non-renewable resource in order to combat this problem. Countries should communicate and collaborate with one another to ensure that our planetary space is no longer the recipient of piles of garbage sent up willy nilly.
Even if that’s a potential solution, Russia’s junk scattering is already causing issues with SpaceX Starlink satellites as well as others, as they have to alter course to avoid it. Really, the bottom line is we’re trashing up our space. And we may soon be paying for it in the form of fiery death from above.
