Satellite Crash Debris Will Threaten Spacecraft For 10,000 Years

MOSCOW — The chief of Russia's Mission Control says clouds of debris from the collision between U.S. and Russian communications satellites will circle Earth for thousands of years and threaten numerous satellites.

Vladimir Solovyov says the crash occurred in an orbit crowded by satellites from many nations.

Solovyov told reporters Friday that numerous fragments left by Tuesday's collision could stay in orbit for up to 10,000 years. He said that even tiny fragments could pose a serious threat to spacecraft made of light alloys.

No one has any idea yet exactly how many pieces of space junk the collision created. Space experts said the collision created hundreds, maybe thousands, of fragments.

Comments

[Bruce Fulper]

10:03 PM on 02/15/2009

"The collision was the first high-speed impact between two intact spacecraft, NASA officials said. The debris field shown in this image is an artist's impression based on actual data but not shown in their actual size or density. "

That's good to know. When I first saw the picture I thought No! I hate that rendering. Makes it looks like there's enough debris to block out most of the sun. The reality of the mess mankind has made out there is bad enough

[plantguy]

07:15 PM on 02/15/2009

Who's paying for all this?

[loki]

02:50 AM on 02/16/2009

we are. the tax payer.

[b1986]

10:12 PM on 02/14/2009

It's kind of like the movie WALL-E. Space around the earth is littered with satellites. What could we possibly be using all of these 1000's of satellites for anyway. I mean there's communication, defense, telescopes, the space station... what else is there. I'm sure all the people who comment on these boards could think of 100's of more things, but seriously. The picture looks like earth is surrounded by garbage.

[Antacid]

01:47 PM on 02/15/2009

If anyone is planning to build a mothership I want in on it.

[RTIII]

03:46 PM on 02/14/2009

I imagine that someday - maybe sooner than later - someone will develop a spacecraft whose job it is to shift orbits and clean up debris. It may even get around by gathering kinetic energy from debris, for example by deflecting debris downward it may get pushed to higher orbit. With a good radar mapping system to track the debris - backed up by a good database of their orbits - and some sharp computer programming, such a system might be able to zing around the planet like a pin-ball, knocking trash into the atmosphere and using the kinetic energy to get to other trash...
.

[haramagoti]

01:50 AM on 02/14/2009

All prevailing international capacity to reduce to active satellite levels only, this true danger to ourselves should be instant and swift. We need to pull 17,000 satellites out of the sky, and we need to do it now.

[TJCole]

02:07 PM on 02/13/2009

Just great...now clean it up...

[KillTheMessenger]

01:26 PM on 02/13/2009

Hmmm... lot of poor logic here. Yes, particles in these orbits will remain there NATURALLY for thousands of years. That doesn't mean we won't be regularly cleaning important orbits a few years from now as part of space maintenance and thus remove them technologically.

And while it is true that the particles released by these collisions threaten spacecraft, that statement talks about current, unhardened spacecraft. It is perfectly possible (just more expensive) to make spacecraft that are more resilient against these particles. We didn't do it in the past because it was not necessary. Now it might be.

Mr. Solovyov said nothing that wasn't true. But the headline writer conjectured something up that simply is not supported by the facts.

[research]

12:23 PM on 02/13/2009

Use ion and electron beams to charge the junk and de-orbit it.

It's embarrassing the poop humans leave behind.

How can you not get the similarity to monkeys fling stuff.