Question 1:
What is Space Debris?
Space Debris is the remains and scraps of rockets, satellites and engines that have been taken off their original host. It is one of the most feared problems of space exploration, and has been growing, growing and growing ever since 1957, when man delivered their first-ever space object to, well, space!
What is Space Debris?
Further/Future Problems
Space debris can cause extra problems for humankind, and whilst they aren’t as serious as the main issue, they are still worth taking note of. Below is a list of things space debris is capable of.
- Space debris can rain down on earth, possibly causing a partial meteor shower. Even worse, we may not even be able to see it coming - this has already been recorded when a rocket test went wrong and caused a large chunk of it to break into pieces, then resulting in the pieces to rain down near an unsuspecting village - where they posted a video of various glowing objects falling from the sky.
- When people riot, they have the intention of tipping over, throwing and burning garbage. Burning the trash can result in heart disease, asthma attacks, eye and nose irritation, emphysema, respiratory diseases, lung infections, pneumonia, bronchiolitis and allergies. When space debris burns in the Earth’s atmosphere, it may have the same effects if it gets too close to us. These effects can be fatal.
- The ISS is one of the most expensive objects orbiting Earth and contains the temporary home of numerous astronauts, researchers and their valued research. If even one slight problem occurred, we could lose all of them. Space debris has had several close shaves with the ISS - opposing a threat to everything inside.
- As space debris continues to grow, it may distract scientists from researching other problems - as space debris will become a main priority. This will result in projects going unattended, other world problems developing, and people’s knowledge of interstellar space to go stale. Whilst this is probably one of the least of our problems, I still wanted to take note of it.
- Although most of the debris that falls from the sky and down to Earth burns up in its atmosphere, it can also land down on Earth - causing effects normally seen from meteors on the Earth’s surface. This is a problem on its own, as the land may be destroyed - causing even further problems like homelessness and poverty.
- Space debris, however, can also make its way down to the ocean - where people believe it is safe to leave. But how about the creatures in the ocean? What if it lands in the way of a colony of endangered species, on top of a coral reef, or releases chemicals into the ocean?
"Non-Debris" Debris
Whilst most people believe that since space debris is formed by the collision between two or more objects in Earth’s orbit, all space debris is made of metal and other types of rocket material - but this is not the case.
Space debris has also been claimed to be other objects - such as a plastic spatula that sprung loose off one the International Space Station’s crew members. The spatula orbited Earth, possibly colliding with another object - but this is unconfirmed. It soon stopped floating and started falling, where it was safely destroyed in the burning release of Earth’s atmosphere.
The crew of space missions have also lost other items. Ed White once lost a white glove whilst on the first space-walk of the United States of America. Two cameras were lost by Micheal Collins and Sunita Williams during the events of the Gemini 10, and the STS-116 EVA. A thermal blanket was lost aboard the crew of STS-88 EVA, and the Soviet crew of the Mir lost both a wrench and a toothbrush.
The mission STS-120 EVA ended in surprise with a certain someone losing a pair of pliers needed to fix a torn solar panel powering the station. And finally, during the STS-126 EVA, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper lost her briefcase filled with tools and materials for the mission she was on.
Satellites and Space Debris
Space Debris has already proven itself to be quite the vicious opponent. Take this view from the famous satellite Sputnik 1 - a spherical metal object floating around uselessly in space, with various antenna-like rods popping out on various sides.
It has been reported as the first satellite to be launched into space and has been believed to have been the first attempted space exploration project. However, the Chinese Wan Hu had already tried to launch himself into space, with no more than a chair, a handful of fireworks and two kites.
Unfortunately, Wan never made his dreams a reality. Sputnik was launched on October 4th, 1957.
Sputnik was created to test astronomical object launching physics and laws, calculate the density of the Earth’s atmosphere, to experiment with radio signals and methods - as well as discovering the effects and logic of radio wave transmitted signals.
What is Space Debris?
Unfortunately, Sputnik now only has the acknowledgement of being the first man-made satellite - for it now has very limited use, given how much humanity has evolved their technology. As a result of this, Sputnik is partially considered space debris. Sputnik is now at a high risk of colliding with one of the trillions of space debris in Earth’s orbit.
Sadly, Sputnik isn’t the only satellite at this risk. There are over 2,500 shuttles, satellites and probes floating around in Earth’s orbit. All of which can be destroyed any second now by the trillions of space debris caught with them.
But despite their odds, satellites can also crash into one another - an example being a collision between a Russian satellite and an American commercial probe. The impact between the two caused a debris cloud that scientists have believed to have contained over 2,000 pieces of space debris into orbit.
Although the amount of space debris in Earth’s orbit is surprisingly high, the collisions have been surprisingly low. But that doesn’t stop the fact that disaster still strikes. Below is a shortlist of recorded collisions between space debris and other satellites.
- In 1996, astrologists tracked a crash between a French satellite and a broken French rocket that had failed its test almost a decade ago.
- In 2007, China launched a missile on a dysfunctional weather probe - before considering the consequences. The rocket and the probe were taken down, releasing another 3,000 trackable debris into the danger zone.
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Space Debris Removal
How can we Get Rid of Space Debris?
This is a question that scientists have already begun answering - coming together to originate creative and effective ideas for getting rid of space debris. They have designed a few of their best plans, and are still experimenting with others. So far, zero attempts to discard the debris have been made - but more will come once our droids are complete.
THE DON’TS OF SPACE DEBRIS COLLECTION
- Attempt to eat up the junk, as a slight miscalculation could collide your collector with your target - resulting in a crash. Besides, the fact that the tiny pieces are almost impossible to track, and probably will go in your machine once eaten - and will most likely come out the other end - spilling out the contents.
- Try to use magnets to bring the target towards you. Once again, the tiny bits and bobs of space junk will most likely avoid these magnets by simply going past it at record speeds. Even if the magnets were strong enough to grasp the tiny pieces, they would most likely be going to fast to be pulled towards the magnets.
- But what if it did? Well, then the space debris’ path would bend, resulting in it flying in another direction. If we cover our collector in magnets, however, the speck of debris would fly over to our machine as if in orbit, but probably wouldn’t slow down. Then, after a specific amount of time, the space debris would pierce through our magnets - our machine, and back through. So whilst magnets are still a good idea, they should probably be used for other purposes in space - which will be mentioned later on. People are also doubting the ratio of satellites and debris that are even magnetic! Paint flecks are most definitely not iron.
- Grabbing junk with claws. I think you can see where I’m going with this. First of all, how would our claws successfully detain the smallest pieces of space debris? How would they track them, if they’re moving at such high speeds? And, whilst this is probably impossible, once the smallest pieces are grabbed, they will probably slip through the claw.
But how about the bigger debris? Surely our mechanical arm will be able to sustain them, right? Well, to grab something, you’d need to get a good grip on it. So, our claw would most likely wrap its ‘fingers’ around the debris, pulling it back to Earth. Sure, seems pretty safe - but if we were to miss the grab, either our claw or our target will break.
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Space Debris Removal
What can we use to get rid of space debris?
Regarding the list we read earlier, we can now abide with the various other methods scientists believe are an effective way to clean the skies. These tools include nets, harpoons, lasers and magnets. Most of the ways people believe will get rid of space debris include what researchers are calling “capture and return” missions, which feature the collector detaining a specific piece of debris, before taking it down towards Earth, where it lands safely in either an empty area or the ocean.
How do we get into space?
But before we can even start on the actual process, we need to focus on other things to take into consideration. To get our machines into space in the first place requires both speed and power. We can get speed by using various boosters containing fuel that burns, releasing a strong pulse to get our shuttle into low Earth orbit (the place where we will find all our space debris). The boosters will detach themselves from the body of the rocket once they are empty. After several boosters are spent, the final piece remains. This is often the tip of the rocket. The tip would be programmed to open up, releasing the collector into orbit.
Industrialisations such as the SpaceX program have planned to bring back rockets down safely to Earth without them having to become space debris. This can also be implied to our rockets.
Removal: Nets
The idea of capturing junk with a net was highly recommended and is already under the process of testing. The original idea for the whole net procedure includes deploying a net at the chosen target, wrapping itself around its prey. The net doesn’t have to envelop the entire piece of space debris, it just has to position itself around it in such a way that it has a firm enough grasp on the junk.
The net would start inside the collector, as once launched, the shuttle would need to be able to make it into LOE (low Earth orbit). The net would probably increase the drag on the machine, or burn upon launch, making the whole lift-off a complete failure. So the net will sit quietly in the probe, where it can be launched outside of the collector once programmed to. The net would be connected to the droid, and the deployment of the net would have a coil, wire or spring retract, resulting in a compact rope of some sort to come out - resulting in the net to push itself around the projectile.
The net machine would only be capable of disabling objects such as satellites and panels. The net may even boost itself around the connections of the rope, aiding itself around the piece of space debris.
Once obtained, the net will keep itself how it is - refusing to pull itself into the machine, as doing so could result in a collision between the hunter and the prey. So once captured, the debris should slow down, and the receiver will guide itself back down to Earth, where it can be located and taken back to wherever it needs to go.
When falling in Earth’s atmosphere, things tend to heat up. So for our progress to return to Earth without setting itself on fire - causing it to melt, we will coat our machines in strong heat-resistant materials. The collector itself may even have a few jets of its own, so that it can steer itself in different directions either in space, or coming back down to Earth.
Space Debris Removal
Removal: Harpoons
Other than targeting defective satellites, panels of other average junk, harpoons can be resourceful in terms of capturing large rockets, engines or hunks of metal. These would most likely be too large for a simple net to catch them, so instead, we use a harpoon fired from a new collector to receive them.
Once the harpoon lashes onto the targeted piece of space debris, it will be told to deploy itself down to Earth, like most of its other collective brethren. The net collector uses rockets to guide itself back down to Earth, whilst our harpoon machine may feature a parachute that deploys on the way down.
The harpoon, unlike the net, would have to be partially outside the machine, so that it can launch easily and quickly - as a harpoon should. It would probably have to be made out of tough, heat-resistant materials so that it doesn’t burn on the way down.The harpoon could act as a place-holder for the junk we find, as coming back down to Earth is a different story to what we think about our net catchers. For example, let’s say we find an unused rocket engine floating in LOE.
Our harpoon friend successfully lashes onto it and begins its journey back home. It uses the rocket it found as a sort of a shield from the increasing atmospheric drag/burn it will face.
Removal: Magnets
Magnets are tricky. Scientists say that magnets are both one of the most effective ways to get rid of space debris, but they also say that it has several circumstances where it shouldn’t be used. Nonetheless, it is a “bittersweet” method of removing space debris.Scientists believe that magnets will most likely be one of the last procedures they launch into LOE, as they are very, very far away from the potential humanity has now. But they have also researched the topic of magnets - and are quite satisfied with their results.
Instead of using magnets to attract the debris (which was earlier stated to be a big no above), scientists have planned that in the future magnets will be used to protect satellites by pushing debris away from it, and either down to Earth or out to space. It doesn’t just have to be placed on the satellites, either. Magnets can be used on new equipment - resulting in a brand new collector as a whole.
And whilst magnets won’t collect the vast amount of space debris, rather pushing it away, it can still be called a collector since it is sending debris back down towards us - as all the other shuttles have. But if it doesn’t send it back down or into a safer place, it should be able to slow it down or launch it towards other collectors such as the net and harpoon machines.
The probe itself would design most likely in a spherical form and is covered in electromagnets to blast away any space debris from any angle. The magnets would only activate once it is outside the rocket it arrived in, to prevent it from causing any hazards whilst it is still in lift-off.
How do magnets work exactly? Well for the few people listening/reading who don’t know how magnets work, basically they feature both a North and South pole in their magnetic field. When two poles meet, different things can happen. If the two sides are different poles - say for example a North and South pole meet, then they attract each other - sticking together. But if the poles that they find are the same, such as North and North, then the two poles will repel each other - pushing themselves away.
We can use this to our advantage with our electromagnetic poles on our satellites. What sizes of space debris will we use these magnets on? Most likely medium-sized debris such as satellites, monitors and a couple of smaller parts too. Magnets would most definitely not want to repel giant objects like rockets - nor do they want to repel the tiny pieces of space junk like nails, bolts or shards of metal.
Space Debris Removal
Removal: Lasers
All of the previous removalists haven’t covered one particular area of space debris yet - and they also happen to be the most deadly. The smallest types of debris have been believed to range in the millions - possibly even billions, and are probably even more destructive than the rest, being that - for one, they can’t be tracked. They’re too small to be caught by nets and harpoons and are going way too fast for a magnet to catch them.
So instead, scientists put together one of the most bizarre ways to destroy space debris, and that was with a laser. As one of the most futuristic ideas, it is far from certain we’ll be able to deliver one to space for a while. The plan was that - once developed - lasers would scan the area around them with a soon-to-come extreme zoom-in camera before aiming carefully at the targets using tiny solar-powered jets to fire a high-powered laser.
This is the most dangerous method but is one of the only ways to get rid of the tiniest pieces of space debris. The lasers will be solar-powered, as shooting large beams of energy constantly will take up a lot of energy. So, to charge, the laser gun will obtain its energy from the sun via two large solar panels, connected to the mainframe.
As some people will think, what if the laser were to accidentally hit Earth? Well, as a reasonable concern, I believe that it can be easily fixed by placing the laser in a place where it can orbit the Earth at an angle suitable for shooting the debris, whilst also pointing away from the Earth - preventing it to shoot towards us. The rockets we attach to it will also be charged by the solar panels and will be in charge of moving the shuttle into different places.
The miniature rockets are also important because of the knockback from the beams. You see, if you were to shine a torch in space, you’d be pushing yourself backwards. This is extremely helpful when designing a stellar engine (a gigantic rocket that feeds itself energy from the sun to push the sun away, causing the planets to follow it due to the sun’s magnetic pull), but it also lets us know that when we shoot a laser in space, it may and probably will push us back.
So by facing away from Earth and shooting a laser away from it, we might accidentally send the probe back down to Earth - causing it to crash. The rockets, as stated earlier, push the cannon forwards - creating a balance between the laser’s pulse, and the rocket’s pulse.
Whilst lasers are far out of our reach, scientists say that there are even more ways to get rid of space debris that is much, much closer to home.
What has/is Being Done?
What is Being Done?
What is being done to Stop Space Debris?
As you may have guessed already, space debris is a huge problem. So what is being done about it? Well for a start, scientists are very concerned about the consequences of the future if we don’t decide to stop the rapid growth of space debris. But other than the experts working on technology to destroy the debris, who else is helping? And, what can we do about it?
Well, first, we should analyse the work scientists have put into the removal of space debris. For a start, we can say that scientists are experimenting with the ideas they have brainstormed, and have also teamed up to make them. Soon, they hope to launch the first collector into space.
So far, the only method we have tested is the machine featuring nets. This was confirmed after a successful experiment conducted by the RemoveDebris program, who used their piloted probe on a dummy satellite. All the aspects of the test went according to plan. The net deployed and enveloped the targeted debris, and best of all, the collector didn’t explode.
But we can’t simply just launch RemoveDebris’ technological marvel - yet. There are still lots of things we need to clarify, add and test. For starters, we haven’t tried launching the probe yet, so we don’t know how that will work. We also haven’t clarified the targeting system - for the satellite was positioned in a range of the net, so that still has to be developed.
We also don’t know how to pilot our ship, as not only was the satellite held in place and positioned, but the collector was as well. So once we add on the extra weight, we will also have to re-test since the weight may be a crucial error in our plans. Plus, if we find any other fatal miscalculations, we could be in a very sticky situation.
So there are lots of things to take into consideration, but there are still many things we can do to reduce space debris. The SpaceX foundation is a great example of this. SpaceX was created to launch rockets that return themselves to Earth to prevent them from floating in space for a very long time.
But you may be wondering - who came up with the idea of SpaceX? Well, if you haven’t heard, Elon Musk created SpaceX during 2002 - so now he’s begun making an impact. After a long process of planning, testing and creating reusable rockets, Elon - along with the recognisable company PayPal, they launched their first successful recyclable rockets.
Read on to see what launches Elon has made to stop space debris.
SpaceX
SpaceX
SpaceX, as I said earlier, was founded by Elon Musk and PayPal - two people capable of funding such expensive, difficult projects.
Elon Musk attended university in his early life and graduated with a degree of physics and ecology in 1997. He soon created the early Zip2 - where he created a greater potential for the internet universe. Zip2 was bought for $307 dollars by Compaq, allowing Musk to put together X.com - which was later renamed into the more popular Paypal.
Paypal was later bought by eBay for $1.5 billion dollars.So with the help of Elon’s own company, he and PayPal began work on their first SpaceX project. Their first rockets consist of Falcon 1 and 3 - then leading to Falcon Heavy. All of these rockets were designed by Elon in order to show the world that rockets could be built at cheaper, more affordable prices and could be used to transport larger payloads into space at a time.
It wasn’t long before the great mind of Elon realised the increasing problem of space debris, and began putting together reusable rockets that come back to Earth after their needed use. After many failed attempts and many weeks of work, Musk managed to create the world’s very first recyclable rocket.