February 28, 2023, 14:36 - BLiTZ – News
The mass of space debris is steadily growing. According to Roskosmos, 130 million “objects of man-made nature” revolve around the Earth. More and more satellites subsequently become waste that interferes and can damage working devices. What is the danger of space debris and how they are trying to deal with it, the astronomer, general director of the Center for Planetary Protection Anatoly Zaitsev told the BLiTZ.
“It is possible that debris will collide with active spacecraft, both unmanned and manned. Just recently, a hole was discovered on our Soyuz. Perhaps the damage was caused by space debris or a meteorite. Therefore, the danger of space debris is quite serious. It is not for nothing that these issues are now being dealt with closely in the UN Committee on Outer Space, a corresponding resolution has been adopted. However, no significant results have been achieved. I will not express myself quite correctly, but now Musk has launched a thousand satellites, China is launching 13 thousand, all of them will someday fail and become garbage, ”Anatoly Zaitsev warned.
In addition to the risk of collision with operating devices, debris can create some kind of interference with data transmission from satellites. They have become a big problem for astronomers as well.
“The fragments come across quite large, of course, they reflect sunlight and fall into the field of view of telescopes. Here you have to filter the “useful” signals from those that emit garbage, ”the specialist explained.
In the struggle for a clean space, scientists have not achieved serious results, but work in this direction is underway. According to international law, it is necessary to solve the problem of movable blocks that put satellites into orbit so that their parts do not turn into garbage.
“My former colleagues from the research and production association named after. Lavochkin have long developed the Frigate adjustable blocks. After it puts the satellites into orbit, they retain a small amount of fuel in order to slow down the speed.
That is, after completing the task, so that they do not hang around with debris, they are given a braking impulse and they fall, enter the earth’s atmosphere, partially burn out, and the remaining parts of the adjustable blocks are flooded in a special area of the Pacific Ocean, ”said Anatoly Zaitsev.
In general, it is necessary to introduce responsibility in this area, the head of the Center for Space Security is convinced. While space debris does not interfere with sunlight, since its size is small. But, nevertheless, it’s time to think about the ecology of near-Earth space, otherwise over time it can become a serious problem.
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