Last Thursday, we embraced Europe’s third cargo vehicle docking with the International Space Station (ISS)! The ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-3) was successfully attached to the ISS to provide supplies both to the crew and the station. It is scheduled to stay docked for a 5-month period; afterwards it will be detached and destroyed. But, what happens with all the remaining parts, the so-called space rubbish?
As a child, not only in school but also at home, I remember my mother advising me not to litter. However, the years have passed and the modern forms of rubbish are the space ones! Of course, the problem existed back then too, but I was too young to be aware of. Among other problems for satellites, the most frequent one is that the Earth is surrounded by human-made orbital debris in all shapes and sizes that include everything; from abandoned satellites and leftover rocket stages to the tiniest paint chips and droplets from spacecraft coolant systems. Unfortunately, we cannot ignore the danger. Given the ultra-fast speeds of objects in space (satellites in low-Earth orbit fly at 17,400 mph), even the most minuscule bit of rubbish could create havoc, if it crashed into a functioning spacecraft.
As far as the ESA’s ATVs are concerned, they burn up as they reentry the Earth’s atmosphere, so there should be no worry about debris. Also, ESA has initiated the Space Situational Awareness program to develop Europe’s scanning, detection and warning capabilities against space debris and natural near-earth objects. In this way, every piece of material is recognized and measures take place to avoid collision with the satellites and spacecrafts, or warn the Earth for possible entries.
Therefore, we should take good care of not only the physical but also the space environment; they are interconnected. Individually, it’s difficult to contribute and have the space environment all tidy! However, international organizations (NASA, ESA) which represent every nation and every individual, take this important role to inform us and act against every problem arising from space junk. After all, it’s not likely something will fall from the sky and hit you while walking in the countryside!
elen