What is space waste and how does it affect the planet?

Many experts warn of space waste and its impact on Earth, and various space agencies around the world join hands to find a solution to get rid of this nightmare, which may affect our satellites and cause a lot of inconvenience to the inhabitants of the Earth, and the following is the meaning of this term:

What is space waste?

Some float in space; Much of it orbits the Earth, and you can find it on Venus and Mars, while a ton of it actually stops on the moon, some call it space junk, and some refer to it as space junk or space debris.

According to the NASA website, the three terms define the same elements, which refer to the human-made creatures remaining in space even though they no longer serve any useful purpose, and humanity’s journey into space began in 1957 when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first satellite. Since that time, more than 4,000 satellites have been launched into orbit.

Popular space trash

It is estimated that hundreds of millions of pieces of space garbage are now floating across our region of the Solar System, some as large as trucks and others smaller, and there are a few relatively popular pieces of space garbage, one of which is the glove that floated away from the Gemini 4 crew during their first spacewalk. It was done by American astronauts, the other being the camera that Michael Collins lost during a mission Gemini 10. Rocket boosters, spacecraft fragments, and shrapnel and particles resulting from collisions or space explosions are other examples of types of garbage orbiting the Earth at speeds of up to 36,000 kilometers per hour..

Duration of space waste

The Earth’s gravitational field pulls a lot of space waste into the lower and lower orbits until it finally reaches the Earth’s atmosphere, and most of the waste is burned when it enters the Earth’s atmosphere, and the higher the altitude around it, the longer the space waste remains in orbit.

Usually space waste moving in orbits of less than 600 km returns to Earth within a few years, and space waste that orbits at heights of more than 1,000 km can continue to orbit the Earth for a century or more..

Space waste hazards

The main problem with space litter is the danger it poses to operating satellites and manned spacecraft. NASA frequently replaces space shuttle windows damaged by spinning paint chips.

Because of the very high speeds at which space junk travels, small pieces ranging in size between 1 and 10 centimeters can penetrate and destroy most spacecraft, and a ten centimeter piece of space waste can cause damage as much as twenty-five pieces of dynamite, for these reasons, NASA and the US Department of Defense have created a space surveillance network, ground stations tracking larger chunks of space waste so that collisions with operating satellites or the space shuttle can be avoided, and future plans include a collaborative effort between governments of many countries to stop space waste and possibly clean up existing garbage.