The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced an increase in the amount of space debris. About this it is said in the annual report, which the agency published on April 1.
According to scientists, more than 130 million fragments of space debris orbit the Earth, which poses a serious threat to the functioning of devices in orbit. Every year at least one satellite is disabled by collisions with debris. Critical services, from GPS to systems used to monitor natural disasters, can be affected in such cases.
Although about three satellites or rocket bodies are safely re-entered the atmosphere every day, the amount of debris in orbit is constantly increasing. This is influenced, in particular, by an increase in the number of commercial launches.
“We depend on satellites as a source of information for our daily lives: from navigation to telecommunications and services to Earth observation, particularly in security and defense,” – noted ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher.
Due to the large amount of debris, the satellites are forced to regularly perform evasive maneuvers, even at the slightest threat. Even small particles, one millimeter in diameter, can cause serious damage to devices in orbit. As Thiago Soares, lead engineer of ESA’s Clean Space Division, explained, a one-centimeter fragment has energy comparable to a hand grenade.
There are at least a million large pieces of debris in Earth’s orbit, each of which can cause a chain reaction of collisions — the so-called Kessler effect. During the annual conference on space debris, the ESA emphasized the need for urgent action to clean up the space around Earth, because the amount of debris is “rapidly increasing”.
“Some orbits are becoming increasingly crowded with deadly, fast-moving debris from former satellites and rockets that threaten our future in space.” – summed up in the agency.
