United Nations Meeting on Excess Space Debris
~Ninety-five percent of the objects represented by white dots in this computer-generated illustration are human-made debris. Scientists warn that the growing amount of space junk orbiting the Earth threatens the safety of human and robotic space missions.~ (National Geographic News)
********************************************************************
“Failure to act now to regulate space to protect property and human life would be pure folly,” says the UN’s association’s director, Tommaso Sgobba. Professor Richard Crowther, who is representing the UK at a UN space safety meeting in Vienna, agrees: “Eventually binding international civil aviation style laws will have to come.”
The space junk and space waste left in space, also called space debris or orbital debris, orbit around Earth, considered as leftovers of space projects that no longer serve any purpose. Reaching a critical level, solar panels, old satellite parts, and “an odd astronaut’s lost glove” now are gathering enough to be considered a serious risk. Enough of a risk, a recent report from the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety is requiring stringent international laws to be urgently prepared.
As more and more space garbage gathers, a serious need for civil aviation standards regarding space laws needs to be done in order to prevent the developing threat, to be presented to the United Nations this month. When the United States shot down a disabled spy satellite, saying (ahem) “its fuel could cause serious damage if it crashed to Earth”, an international chaos developed with Russia and most of the world’s population with half-a-brain loudly claiming it was simply a cover-up by the United States for illegal testing of its anti-satellite weapons. And now, we have blowed apart pieces of garbage adding to the growing list of junk in space. But rest assured, everyone, the secret of the United States is safe!
Presently, more than 9,000 pieces of junk are in space, weighing more than 5,500 tons, and are found in two main space regions: low Earth orbit about two hundred miles above Earth, and geostationary orbit, approximately 22,300 miles above Earth, where communication satellites are programmed to hover. And each area has its own specific set of problems, posing different risks for assorted areas.
The low Earth orbit consists of pieces of debris that have the ability to strike manned spacecraft. If this does occur, it will lead to what is called “fatal depressurization”, according to space experts. Astronauts require oxygen levels for about 10,000 feet in altitude, or unconsciousness sets. Anything above that level requires the aircraft to be pressured, where oxygen is automatically fed into the aircraft, or cabin area.
If something drastic happens, such as a loud crack or broken area caused by impacting space debris, the astronauts would have only about five to ten seconds before losing consciousness due to hypoxia—a loss of oxygen to the brain–with a possible drop in cabin temperature to -70 degrees with a smoke-like condensation developing. The oxygen level inside the spacecraft will level off to inadequately thin amounts equal to what is outside in space, lowering the oxygen level inside for the human astronauts-causing eventual death.
This entry was posted on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 at 2:18 am and is filed under Public Relations, Space Agency News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
