Maddy, Nyah, Nils Podcast - Space Junk

Space junk refers to man-made debris left in Earth's orbit, ranging from dead satellites to small paint chips. The issue began in 1957 with the launch of the first satellite. Currently, there are around 750,000 smaller pieces and 29,000 larger pieces of space debris in orbit. The US is the biggest contributor, followed by China, the UK, and Russia. Space junk poses risks to astronauts, animals, and space equipment, as even small pieces can cause damage. It can also release harmful chemicals, affecting the ozone layer and increasing radiation levels. Cleaning up space junk will require time and money, but steps have been taken, such as the 25-year rule and new technologies. It is crucial to prevent more junk and find effective ways to clean it up to protect our planet and space. This is your podcast on space junk at Earth's orbit. Today we are meeting with Maddie to talk about it. Hi, I'm Maddie, expert in space junk. In this podcast, we'll be discussing the history of space junk and what people are doing to help clean the space junk and how space junk affects the environment and people. First off, what is space junk? Space junk slash space debris is anything man-made by humans that is sent to space and left there. This can be as big as a dead satellite or as small as a bit of paint chipped off of the rocket ship. Okay, so it's basically things or machines sent out by humans. Yeah. So why is there space junk in Earth? On October 4th, 1957, the Soviet Union sent out the first man-made object into orbit, the Sputnik, which was the world's first satellite. This could be the start of the issue, but there isn't really a start. More like the first satellite was sent into space, then another one, then more stuff was sent into orbit, and now there are about 750,000 smaller pieces of space debris that are one to ten centimeters long and about 29,000 larger pieces of space debris currently circling our planet. There are also 166 million small one-centimeter pieces circling the Earth. This gradually happened, and every space program or race to the moon added to this. Every time something is sent up in space, there's a chance that some bit fell off and was left in our orbit. So humans are kind of the reason that this is a problem? Yes, definitely. Humans are the entire reason this is actually a problem, but who's adding to the problem the most? Well, the U.S. is the biggest contributor to the space junk problem, but the U.S. has sent about 2,000 pieces of space junk, China at 200, which is a pretty big jump from the U.S., and the United Kingdom at 100, Russia at 50. All over the world, many different space programs are sending more junk into space. Even though the U.S. has more objects launched into space, the number of space debris each country has in orbit is different. Russia is first with 4,500 pieces of space debris in orbit. This is easily trackable. The U.S. is second with 4,300, China with 4,100, France is only 400, so on and so forth. So if everyone has contributed to this problem, then who's impacted by this? There will be a lot of things that the rockets will hit that could be bad for people inside the rocket. If you create an air leak that could kill people inside the rocket, you can also kill animals that are in space. This also affects running space machinery. Even the smallest piece can be very dangerous. Crews in orbit commonly find indents in the space station because of really small pieces of debris. They move like bullets, and when they hit, there's a large consequence. Space junk can travel up to 15,700 miles per hour, and it can cause significant damage to a satellite or a spacecraft in case of collision. It is also adding pollution. When satellites collide, dangerous chemicals can be released into space that can affect the upper atmosphere and the ozone layer. This can also increase the solar radiation levels in space. People are the ones contributing, specifically space programs, but they're also the ones being affected the most. What are the first steps to solving this? Solving this problem isn't going to be an easy one-and-done thing. This is going to take many years and a lot of money. In March of 2023, NASA sent out a financial analysis on space debris. That goes over how much it would cost to get rid of the junk in our orbit, and it includes a diagram. In this diagram, we see that removing space debris would have immediate benefits, but the cost would take up to three to four years to make up. Recent satellites and rocket bodies have new technology that can either prevent explosions, reuse them, or move them to disposal orbits at Space Junk Yard when their mission is over. NASA has already taken some steps to help with space junk, like having the 25-year rule. This has every dead satellite lowered into the atmosphere to get burned up. There are also nuts, harpoons, and magnets as well to get the space junk. Some fun facts include there is more and more space junk sent into space every year, about 200 to 400 pieces. The number of things launched into space also raises every year by 500. The higher the altitude the debris is, the longer it takes to burn up in the atmosphere, and there's about 110,000 metric tons of man-made space waste in the orbits. Space junk releases harmful chemicals that can weaken the ozone layer and endanger future space exploration missions, satellites, the crew on the space station, and the space station. In conclusion, there is a huge amount of space junk left in our planet's orbit. This has happened for decades, and we haven't been trying to stop it, so we need to work on stopping more space junk from going into the atmosphere, and we need to find better and more effective ways to clean up big and small pieces of space junk. Space is killing not only our planet, but the space around it. Thank you for listening. Naya, Niels, and Maddie out.