[ad_1]
It is now thought that there are 170 million incredible debris floating in the upper Earth's atmosphere, but only 22,000 are being tracked. Some 7,000 tons of space junks surround our planet, in the form of defeated satellites, littered with rockets and other metals and rocks accumulated near the Earth. Experts have already warned that as space debris increases, rockets will find it more difficult to escape Earth's orbit for fear of collision with an object known as "Klesser Syndrome".
An expert has now chosen Elon Musk and his company SpaceX, which plans to send 60 satellites into orbit as part of Starlink – a project that will hopefully see the Internet shine in space, making it more accessible to all.
The SpaceX Starlink plan is an attempt to bring broadband Internet to anyone in the world.
Satellites will be centered using a low earth orbit to connect to terrestrial terminals on Earth to provide an Internet connection.
These low-orbiting satellites are at a distance of 99 to 1,200 miles from the Earth instead of the traditional 22,000 mile geostationary satellites.
Asked about the SpaceX launches, Dr. Stijn Lemmens told Scientific American: "The worst case is this: you launch all your satellites, you go bankrupt and they all stay there.
"Then you have thousands of new satellites without a plan to get them out of there. And you would have a Kessler syndrome.
Space debris can be detrimental to space travel, and as the Earth's low Earth's orbit continues to become increasingly crowded, experts, including those at NASA, have warned of its dangers.
Nicholas Johnson, chief scientist for orbital debris, said: "Each of these debris can potentially seriously disrupt or terminate the mission of an operational low-Earth-orbit spacecraft.
"This satellite break represents the most prolific and serious fragmentation of the last 50 years in space operations."
Not only does it pose a threat to space travel, but technologies such as mobile phones, television, GPS and weather services also depend on satellites. A cataclysmic series of accidents could therefore threaten our excessive dependence on satellites.
[ad_2]
Source link