#space pollution

ClearSpace-1, 

Planned for launch in 2025, will grab an upper stage rocket left behind in 2013 and bring it down into the atmosphere, where both will disintegrate.

Tweet of the day 😮 Good news or bad news ? What do you think about SpaceX's Starlink satellite constellation (goal : 12 000 satellites to implement a space-based Internet communication system) ? Tell in comment !

👉 All about Starlink : https://www.fromspacewithlove.com/starlink-satellite-constellation/

 Alejandro Jinberdeem Art -  Space Pollution

The extensive cloud of debris Russia’s anti-satellite test created

Early this week, Russia launched a missile that destroyed the country’s Kosmos 1408 satellite, a large spacecraft that orbited the Earth roughly 300 miles up. The breakup of the satellite created at least 1,500 pieces of trackable fragments, according to the US State Department, as well as thousands of smaller pieces that cannot be tracked. 

All of those pieces are still in low Earth orbit, moving at thousands of miles an hour and posing a threat to any objects that might cross their path. Initially, that even included the International Space Station, with crew members on board forced to take shelter in their spacecrafts as the debris cloud from the satellite passed by the ISS a couple of times.

It’s going to take weeks or even months to fully understand just how bad the situation is, but early visualizations of the ASAT test created by satellite trackers show an extensive trail of space debris left in the wake of the breakup. 

The fragments appear like a dotted snake in orbit, stretching out and moving in roughly the same direction that Kosmos 1408 used to move around Earth. And there’s one thing the visualizers agree on: this snake of debris isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. “There will be some potential collision risk to most satellites in [low Earth orbit] from the fragmentation of Cosmos 1408 over the next few years to decades,” LeoLabs, a private space tracking company in the US sais.

SPACE POLLUTION JUST LIKE WHAT WE DO TO EARTH

Meteor camera reveals scope of satellite pollution A camera looking for falling stars captured a jumble of satellite trails in one of its worst ever nights of satellite pollution. The camera, located in North Oxfordshire, England, is operated by the UK Meteor Network. In the image, released on Twitter by the camera’s owner, skywatcher and science communicator Mary McIntyre, star trails can be…

For the “Nature” print issue of The Nib, Maki Naro and I pointed out that space is a natural resource that should not be hogged or polluted. Our comic is now available for free on the Nib website! [ This blog is dedicated to tracking my most recent publications. Subscribe to the feed to keep up with all the science stories I write! ] The End of Night Panel from “The End of Night”, with words…