Space Debris

A Space Age “tragedy of the commons” is unfolding right under our nose—or, really, right over our head—and no consensus yet exists on how to stop it. For more than a half-century, humans have been hurling objects into low-Earth orbit in ever growing numbers. And with few meaningful limitations on…

A UK -LED mission to show how space debris can be cleared has blasted off. According to the European Space Agency, there is approximately 9,200 tonnes of human space debris littering the solar system. That includes 34,000 objects greater than 10cm and 128 million objects between 1mm and 1cm long.…

The ELSA-d mission’s servicer and chaser satellites (bottom and top) during ground testing last year. Credit: AstroscaleA commercial mission developed by the Japanese company Astroscale rocketed into space on a Russian Soyuz launcher Monday with 37 other payloads, ready to kick off an orbital “dance” with two small spacecraft demonstrating…

When a bizarre, speedy object cruised through our solar system back in 2017 it seemed that everyone in the astronomy world took notice. It was quickly discovered that the object, dubbed Oumuamua, had come from outside of our own solar system, making it the first interstellar object ever detected by…

by Sandra Erwin — March 16, 2021 Artist rendering of Astroscale's End-of-Life Services by Astroscale demonstration (ELSA-d) Credit: Astroscale Gen. David Thompson: “The more we can depend on commercial space for routine activities like transportation and debris removal, the more we can focus on national security." WASHINGTON — Vice Chief…

Home News Spaceflight The International Space Station jettisons a 2.9-ton pallet carrying used batteries on March 11, 2021. This photo was posted on Twitter by NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins. (Image credit: NASA/Mike Hopkins via Twitter) The International Space Station got a little lighter last week. The orbiting lab discarded a…

Home News An illustration of junk revolving around Earth. (Image credit: Shutterstock) In 2016, European Space Agency astronaut Tim Peake shared a photo of a quarter-inch dent gouged into a glass window of the International Space Station (ISS). The culprit? A tiny fleck of space junk.  The piece of debris,…

Debris and defunct launcher stages in the Geostationary ring. Aging satellites are known to release debris and explosions can occur due to residual energy sources. The resulting fragments can be thrown back and cross the Geostationary orbit. For this reason, it’s fundamental to release residual energy once the nominal mission…

Litter is not only a problem on Earth. According to NASA, there are currently millions of pieces of space junk in the range of altitudes from 200 to 2,000 kilometers above the Earth's surface, which is known as low Earth orbit (LEO). Most of the junk is comprised of objects…

On the next stage of the rollout, on LRT, and on space junk. You can write to us too, at: letters@ottawacitizen.com Author of the article: Editorial Board 93-year-old Arnold Roberts became the first long-term care resident in Ottawa to be vaccinated against COVID-19 several weeks ago. In March, Ottawa hopes…