Each of us knows that humanity has incredibly polluted its planet and continues to generate an incredible amount of garbage every day. But few people know that during the short period of space exploration, we managed to turn the near-Earth space into a small dump of spent satellites. Here are two interactive visualizations that reflect the current situation.

The first visualization (by Alex Rasmussen) shows all known and tracked satellites and debris:

• Green dots indicate active satellites.
• Gray - inactive, but functional.
• Red - failed satellites and their debris.

The European Space Agency has determined that the Earth is currently orbiting:

• about 29,000 fragments larger than 10 cm,
• about 670,000 fragments from 1 to 10 cm,
• more than 170 million fragments from 1 mm to 1 cm.

The total mass of debris in near-Earth space is estimated at 6,300 tons; flight speed can reach 56,000 km/h.

Over the past 50 years, about 6,600 satellites have been launched, of which 3,600 are still orbiting the Earth, and 1,000 are in active mode.

How dangerous is all this garbage?

The visualizations presented can mislead our minds because the dots only represent location debris, but not the size, that is, the scale is not respected. In reality, the near-Earth space is not at all a landfill, as it looks in the pictures. However, space agencies of different countries are still on alert, because the cost of launched objects is very high, and the potential damage from the loss of 1,000 currently operational satellites as a result of collisions with debris is estimated at $130 billion.

Every year, 100-150 tons of debris enter the earth's atmosphere. The most notable incident in recent years was the collision of a German and an American satellite, whose debris fell into the Bay of Bengal in 2011. Astronauts in orbit should also not relax (hello “Gravity”). In 2012, the ISS was moved to a higher orbit to prevent collision with debris from a Japanese satellite.

What to do?

Fortunately, the repetition of a scenario similar to “Gravity” in life is unlikely. Moreover, the engineers have provided a lot of protective equipment (the ISS is considered “the most protected spacecraft in history”). However, the speed of flight and the growing amount of debris pose an increasing threat. Scientists are warning about the possibility of Kessler syndrome, when there is so much debris in orbit that the risk of destruction of any launched vehicle becomes very high. Such a chain reaction could, in fact, close humanity's access to space.

Today, scientists are looking for ways to track debris and clean up space. One of many ideas is to use special satellites that will capture debris and send it to the surface of the planet. The option of collecting still usable debris for recycling is also being considered.

Whatever method is chosen in the future, one thing is certain: littering nearby outer space will cost us a lot. If we want to continue to have access beyond our planet, to have modern satellite communications, observation and research, then we need to start exploring possible ways to get rid of orbital debris.

By clicking on the original article, you can appreciate the interactivity of the visualizations. Unfortunately, Habr does not allow you to embed them in a post, so I had to take screenshots.

On March 26, 2012, the crew of the International Space Station had to go to bed not in their usual places on the station, but to move to the Soyuz landing craft for the night. The astronauts had to hide because space debris was supposed to fly near the station - a piece of an old collapsed satellite. Fortunately, the ISS was not damaged, and the astronauts safely returned to their work, although they spent the night in spacesuits, ready to return to Earth at any moment. If things had turned out a little differently, a sleepless night in spacesuits would have seemed like a better way for the astronauts to spend their time. Space debris could cause much more trouble for people both on Earth and in space, destroying some section of the ISS. Let's wish the astronauts success in their difficult but interesting work, and let's talk about what space debris is.

Space debris is inoperative satellites, their fragments and parts of spent space rockets. Speaking in a completely adult way, these are man-made objects that are in space, but do not work and do not bring any benefit.

Space debris. Illustration by the artist from the website of the Izhevsk astroclub.

How is space debris formed? What kind of space debris is there?

Each artificial satellite has its own “lifetime”. While the spacecraft is performing some work, it is called “alive.” For example, a satellite can monitor clouds and temperature changes on earth (weather satellites), transmit radio signals from one point on Earth to another (communications satellite), or spy on foreign troops (spy satellite). But time passes, and the satellite gradually begins to lose power: the battery runs out or the solar panels deteriorate. Then the instruments on the satellite begin to slowly turn off. First those that require a lot of energy, then others that require less electricity. Eventually, the spacecraft stops transmitting information to Earth. This means that the satellite has exhausted its resource, and it will no longer be possible to use it. At the same time, the spacecraft continues to fly in its orbit around the Earth, but does not bring any benefit, which is why it is called space debris.

Dead American satellite burned up in the atmosphere

Another type of space debris is the upper stages of space rockets and upper stages that launch spacecraft into orbit. When manned ships or satellites are launched into space, they fly into space not on their own, but with the help of special rockets. The spacecraft is located in a special upper stage. When the upper stage reaches the place where the satellite needs to be left, a hatch opens in it and, with the help of a spring, the satellite is pushed into space and goes into “free floating”. It often happens that after this, the upper stages move only slightly from the satellite’s orbit, remain in space and also become space debris. This video at 1:09 shows the upper stage being separated from the spacecraft.

The biggest contribution to the amount of debris in low-Earth orbit comes not from spent satellites or rockets, but from small (less than a centimeter) pieces of spacecraft skin, the remains of exploded upper stages - in a word, all sorts of little things. According to recent estimates, the number of such “grains of sand” can reach hundreds of thousands. Last year, due to an underestimation of risks, an American communications satellite launched into orbit collided with an old, no longer operational Russian military satellite. The collision occurred at a very high speed, so both satellites scattered into small pieces, which added small space debris. It was from the debris of these satellites that the astronauts had to hide. There is an infographic about the amount and location of space debris.

Why is space debris dangerous?

Space debris, unfortunately, is not room dust, which quietly lies in the corners of an untidy room. Unlike resting earthly debris, old satellites and their pieces rush near the Earth at enormous speeds - tens of kilometers per second. If you could move at such a speed, you could sleep longer in the morning, because the journey from home to school (or to work) would never take even a second. But what is a pleasant dream for us is a dangerous reality for an astronaut. If a small piece of debris crashes into a useful satellite or space station, it will destroy it or cause significant damage. The “grains of sand” can still be dealt with. For this purpose, there are special screens on the surface of the ISS into which cosmic dust crashes. The collisions are so strong that the impact simply evaporates a small piece of debris along with part of the protective screen. However, nothing can save you from debris several centimeters in size, so the astronauts have to put on a spacesuit and prepare for evacuation to Earth. Sometimes, instead of preparing for evacuation, astronauts can slightly change the ISS orbit and “make way” for dangerous debris.

Photo of the Russian space station MIR. Black spots are visible on the top rightmost solar array - the consequences of a collision with space debris.

Space junk or space museum?

Some scientists believe that space debris is a unique museum of space technology. Just imagine how interesting it would be to walk through such a museum! After all, there you can find almost all the devices launched into space during the entire time that has passed from the launch of the first Soviet satellite to the present day. Weather satellites that once helped predict the weather, repeaters with large dish antennas that have fallen silent forever, spy satellites that have fallen asleep in eternal sleep, still carefully monitoring the Earth's surface with their lenses... These are not just pieces of metal, but the painstaking work of hundreds of talented people, brilliant designers, engineers, designers. This is the embodiment of the inventions and discoveries of physicists and chemists, the efforts of materials scientists, and the calculations of mathematicians. This is a story of ups and downs (sometimes literally), failures and breakthrough ideas, a story of great expectations and dreams come true. Perhaps this would be a museum that all of humanity, and, first of all, Russia, could be proud of.

Konstantin Kudinov

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Professor Brucchi of the Observatory recently complained about the diminishing brightness of both Centauri stars. How can he not weaken if the whole neighborhood is filled with garbage! Around the largest planet Sirius, the real pearl of this planetary system, a ring appeared like the rings of Saturn, but consisting of empty beer and lemonade bottles. An astronaut flying this way is forced to avoid not only clouds of meteorites, but also tin cans, eggshells and old newspapers.

In some places you can't see the stars because of this rubbish. Astrophysicists have been racking their brains for years, trying to find the reason for such noticeable differences in the amount of cosmic dust in different galaxies. But the point, I think, is simple: the higher the civilization, the more litter there is, hence all this dust, litter and rubbish.

It is unlikely that those who read this story half a century ago could have imagined that such a garbage ring would actually begin to form. And not near distant Sirius, but around our home planet.

Garbage day!

On October 4, 1957, the first artificial Earth satellite was launched, and humanity moved a little closer to the stars. In those days, all the people of the world tried to see Sputnik in the sky and saw a tiny luminous point. Only it wasn’t Sputnik, too small to be seen with the naked eye. This point was the second stage of the R-7 launch vehicle, which delivered it into orbit. It became the first space debris in history.

Over the following years, about five thousand launches were carried out, which put almost 6,600 satellites into orbit. Of these, 3,600 are still in space, and only 1,000 of them are operational. Already in the late fifties, scientists began to think that old satellites that had spent their time would sooner or later begin to interfere with new ones.

Comparison of the volume of space debris and the size of the Earth as imagined by the artist.

Unfortunately, space debris is not limited to just old satellites and spent rocket stages. Now space reconnaissance systems track about twenty thousand objects in earth orbit, whose total mass ranges from 5 to 10 thousand tons. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. According to the European Space Agency, there are 45 thousand objects in orbit with a diameter of more than 5 centimeters. As for smaller bodies, hundreds of thousands of fragments with a diameter of 1 to 5 centimeters and millions of very small fragments are flying in the sky above us.

Distribution of debris in near-Earth space. The ring is debris in geostationary orbit that will remain there for several hundred years.

Where does garbage come from?

If we lived in the Star Wars universe, everything would be clear. Broken spaceships and parts of fighter planes are a common sight in a distant galaxy. One can imagine how, after the next major battle, all the workers who are not involved in the construction of the next Death Star are sent to routine clearing of outer space. And what’s more, they are burning the Empire and the Rebels, after whom they have to clean up.

In our galaxy, cosmic junk appears in much more banal ways. The launch of any satellite into orbit is accompanied by the formation of a mass of technological debris: objects such as explosive bolts, temporary fasteners, and protective coating elements end up in near-Earth space.

In addition, rocket stages and upper stages that have reached their first escape velocity remain in space. Their tanks often contain unspent fuel, which is highly volatile and easily turns into vapor, sometimes leading to powerful explosions. There have been many cases when, after several years in space, used rocket stages unexpectedly exploded, scattering shrapnel of small fragments around them. In recent years, about two hundred such explosions have been observed in near-Earth space. Just one explosion of an Indian rocket stage caused the formation of 300 large fragments at once.

Humanity litters not only in the orbit of its home planet. What do you think Neil Armstrong did when he first opened the doors to the lunar module? He threw a bag of garbage out of the cabin. Only then did he descend to the lunar surface and utter his famous phrase.

“A small step for a person...” - “Have you taken out the trash?!” - “Yes! So, where did I stop..."

And there are also small objects. During operation of a solid fuel engine, many dust particles up to 10 microns in size are ejected from its nozzle. Another type of microscopic debris is pieces of paint and protective coating that have fallen off the skin of earthly equipment. And every year the situation gets worse: the more countries and companies explore space, the more debris remains in orbit. In recent years, there have been two high-profile incidents related to space pollution.

The first was the infamous 2007 Chinese anti-satellite missile test. The USSR and the USA tested similar weapons before, but then there was much less debris, and they quickly burned up in the atmosphere - after all, the targets were at a relatively low altitude. The Chinese destroyed the satellite, which is in a polar orbit at an altitude of more than 800 kilometers. As a result, over two thousand fragments and, according to some sources, up to 150,000 small particles appeared in the vicinity of the Earth. 97% of this debris is still in orbit and will hang over the planet for hundreds of years.

By the way, a year later, the United States destroyed the faulty USA-193 spy satellite, on board which remained about half a ton of toxic fuel. However, the satellite was in low orbit, and most of the fragments burned up in the atmosphere.

Saturn's rings are made of rocks, dust and ice. The Earth's rings will be made up of lost bolts and satellite debris.

The second incident was the collision of the Kosmos-2251 satellite, decommissioned in 1995, and the operational Iridium 33 satellite, which occurred on February 10, 2009. This is the first time in history that two spacecraft have collided. As a result, 2,000 pieces of debris were formed - and these are only the large ones that could be tracked.

These two incidents alone increased the number of debris in orbit by more than a third. Now the amount of garbage is growing very quickly (by about 5% per year), and new large-scale collisions are inevitable.

Why is garbage dangerous?

The film Gravity (2013), directed by Alfonso Cuaron, clearly shows what space debris can do. Fragments rushing rapidly through airless space, which are almost impossible to notice, pierce everything in their path, from human bodies to space stations. A few seconds - and the design, which took decades and billions of dollars to create, turns into a useless sieve.

The film is, of course, fantastic, but this is also possible in reality. The fact is that bodies located in the earth's orbit move along it at the first cosmic speed - almost 8 kilometers per second. For comparison: a bullet from a Kalashnikov assault rifle leaves the barrel at a speed of about 1 kilometer per second, and then slows down due to air resistance - unlike debris in a vacuum. Even a small piece of debris hitting a satellite can cause serious damage to it. So, in 2006, communication with the Russian telecommunications satellite Express-AM11 suddenly disappeared. The impact of a microparticle of debris damaged the thermal control system, the satellite quickly overheated and failed.

A hole left by space debris in the SolarMax satellite.

Now imagine what could happen if a piece of debris hits a manned spacecraft or orbital station. Marks from collisions with debris have been repeatedly found on the surface of the shuttles and the hull of the ISS. In 1983, a small grain of sand (less than 1 millimeter in diameter) left a serious crack in the windshield of the Challenger shuttle. In another case, debris penetrated the radiator panel of the shuttle Endeavor. In recent years, debris avoidance maneuvers have become a familiar routine for ISS crews.

A crack in the Challenger's windshield caused by a tiny grain of sand.

A hole in the radiator panel of the shuttle Endeavor left after a collision with a piece of debris.

There are also radioactive objects among space debris. At one time, the USSR launched a large series of US-A maritime reconnaissance satellites into space. Each device was equipped with a nuclear reactor with 30 kilograms of enriched uranium-235. A total of 33 devices were launched, several of which have already “returned” to Earth. One of them, Kosmos-954, fell in Canada in 1978. The satellite debris caused radioactive contamination of the area (fortunately, sparsely populated), which led to a major international scandal. The remaining devices were transferred to a burial orbit at an altitude of 700-1000 kilometers, where they can presumably remain from 250 to 2000 years. It’s a long time, but still the time will come when our descendants will have to decide something.

It is also known that the cooling systems of some satellites leaked, causing thousands of drops of sodium-potassium coolant to enter orbit, which are now also orbiting the Earth. They, unlike satellite reactors, do not pose a danger to the planet, but can damage spacecraft.

The main fuel tank of the second stage of the Delta 2 rocket, which fell in Texas in 1997.

Kessler effect

The Kessler effect is a frightening scenario in which the collision of two large objects will lead to the appearance of a mass of new fragments. Each of these fragments can, in turn, collide with other debris, causing a chain reaction. If there are many affected satellites, the avalanche-like fragments that appear can make the near-Earth space completely unsuitable for flights for several hundred years. This scenario was described by NASA specialist Donald Kessler.

It is known that in 2012, communication with the eight-ton Envisat satellite was lost. It is in an orbit whose altitude is 785 kilometers, and will exist there for about 150 more years. Every year, Envisat twice passes within 200 meters of several wrecks - and chances are good that sooner or later their paths will cross. Many experts believe that such a collision will set off a chain reaction, and then Kessler's scenario could become a reality.

The film "Gravity" is based precisely on Kessler's hypothesis.

Space Sweepers

Everyone already admits that the orbit needs urgent cleaning. Even if humanity stops all space launches, the amount of debris in orbit will still grow - due to collisions between already launched vehicles. There is only one way out: clean up after yourself thoroughly.

So far this has only been possible in science fiction. In Arthur C. Clarke's novel The Fountains of Paradise, the construction of a grandiose space elevator required humanity to thoroughly clean up its orbit. Since people have achieved great success in conquering space, this does not become a big problem - with the help of lasers, engineers quickly remove obstacles. In the process of cleaning up, the scavengers even make some archaeological discoveries and find an old spaceship.

In the famous anime Planetes (“Wanderers”), every company that operates in space must have a debris removal department. It is this very dangerous and not very prestigious work that the main characters of the series do.

But this is all fantasy, fiction - what about reality?

The heroes of “Wanderers” clean the orbit of debris. And they are treated like garbage men.

Objects located in low orbits (up to 400 kilometers) burn up in the atmosphere after a few years. And if all the garbage was located there, there would not be much of a problem - nature itself would clean up after us. But the trouble is that most of the garbage is located much higher. The fragments can hang there for centuries, millennia, and in geostationary orbit - even millions of years.

Various organizations to combat space debris were created both under the governments of space powers and at the international level, but their work did not bring much progress. The problem of debris is currently being addressed by the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, as well as the Space Debris Coordination Committee, created by several national space agencies.

Various methods of combating orbital pollution are being considered. Some propose strengthening the protection of spacecraft from impacts of small particles, others - more carefully control launches, and still others - put additional fuel on satellites so that they can be taken out of orbit. These measures may slow down space debris or save ships, but still do not solve the problem. The only way to deal with space debris is to remove the debris from orbit.

For example, you can create a giant sphere of ultra-light porous material (aerogel) that will absorb the impacts of small particles of debris and catch them, or at least slow them down. Or a large electrodynamic network that will slow down pieces of debris, causing them to fall to Earth much faster, burning up in the atmosphere. Or a space hunter who will capture debris using nets or a harpoon. It is also possible to use lasers to burn debris, but this would have to circumvent international agreements prohibiting the launch of weapons into orbit.

The bad news is that all these technologies exist only on paper. But the process is still gradually moving forward. In the coming years, the first experiments to test some of the mentioned technologies will take place. If only during this time humanity does not completely pollute the orbit.

Archeology of space

Some historians are already saying that there is no need to thoughtlessly destroy all space debris: it may be of significant interest to archaeologists, who will definitely reach orbit in the future.

In the 1980s, NASA donated the ISEE-3 space probe to the National Air and Space Museum. It was planned that in 2014, when the device approached the Earth, it would be transferred to Earth orbit, after which it would be picked up by the shuttle and delivered home. But later this plan had to be abandoned: delivering cargo from orbit turned out to be more expensive than once thought, and the shuttles themselves stopped flying. Still, it is possible that in the distant future some old satellites will be displayed in museums.

***

If you believe one of the humorous explanations of the Fermi paradox (“if extraterrestrial life really exists, why haven’t aliens come to us yet?”), any technogenic civilization clogs the orbit of its home planet so quickly that this makes any further space flights impossible. Let's hope that in the case of our planet this will remain a joke.

Each of us knows that humanity has incredibly polluted its planet and continues to generate an incredible amount of garbage every day. But few people know that during the short period of space exploration, we managed to turn the near-Earth space into a small dump of spent satellites. Here are two interactive visualizations that reflect the current situation.

The first visualization (by Alex Rasmussen) shows all known and tracked satellites and debris:

• Green dots indicate active satellites.
• Gray - inactive, but functional.
• Red - failed satellites and their debris.

The European Space Agency has determined that the Earth is currently orbiting:

• about 29,000 fragments larger than 10 cm,
• about 670,000 fragments from 1 to 10 cm,
• more than 170 million fragments from 1 mm to 1 cm.

The total mass of debris in near-Earth space is estimated at 6,300 tons; flight speed can reach 56,000 km/h.

Over the past 50 years, about 6,600 satellites have been launched, of which 3,600 are still orbiting the Earth, and 1,000 are in active mode.

How dangerous is all this garbage?

The visualizations presented can mislead our minds because the dots only represent location debris, but not the size, that is, the scale is not respected. In reality, the near-Earth space is not at all a landfill, as it looks in the pictures. However, space agencies of different countries are still on alert, because the cost of launched objects is very high, and the potential damage from the loss of 1,000 currently operational satellites as a result of collisions with debris is estimated at $130 billion.

Every year, 100-150 tons of debris enter the earth's atmosphere. The most notable incident in recent years was the collision of a German and an American satellite, whose debris fell into the Bay of Bengal in 2011. Astronauts in orbit should also not relax (hello “Gravity”). In 2012, the ISS was moved to a higher orbit to prevent collision with debris from a Japanese satellite.

What to do?

Fortunately, the repetition of a scenario similar to “Gravity” in life is unlikely. Moreover, the engineers have provided a lot of protective equipment (the ISS is considered “the most protected spacecraft in history”). However, the speed of flight and the growing amount of debris pose an increasing threat. Scientists are warning about the possibility of Kessler syndrome, when there is so much debris in orbit that the risk of destruction of any launched vehicle becomes very high. Such a chain reaction could, in fact, close humanity's access to space.

Today, scientists are looking for ways to track debris and clean up space. One of many ideas is to use special satellites that will capture debris and send it to the surface of the planet. The option of collecting still usable debris for recycling is also being considered.

Whatever method is chosen in the future, one thing is certain: littering nearby outer space will cost us a lot. If we want to continue to have access beyond our planet, to have modern satellite communications, observation and research, then we need to start exploring possible ways to get rid of orbital debris.

By clicking on the original article, you can appreciate the interactivity of the visualizations. Unfortunately, Habr does not allow you to embed them in a post, so I had to take screenshots.

One of the main problems that humanity has faced in the exploration of near space is the accumulation of failed vehicles and their debris in low-Earth orbit. Such objects are called space debris. Now the accumulation of these debris in geostationary orbit threatens humanity’s further exploration of near outer space.

Only 6% of space objects tracked from Earth are active vehicles; all the rest can be fully considered garbage. The size of the debris remaining after launches may be no more than 1 cm, but due to the enormous speeds of rotation around the planet, a collision with even such a tiny fragment can lead to fatal consequences for any spacecraft.

Space debris is the result of every rocket launch from Earth

In total, there is an indefinite amount of debris in the orbits of our planet. According to various estimates, their total weight reaches 5,000 tons, and the total number of fragments reaches 100 thousand, but only 15–16 thousand fragments are listed in the tracking catalogs of various space countries. All other orbital objects can potentially threaten mankind's exploration of near space.

Causes and main sources

The first debris in near-Earth orbits appeared with the beginning of the space age in the 50s of the 20th century, when the first satellites were delivered into orbit. Further exploration of near space invariably increased the amount of debris in near-Earth orbits.

The main “polluters” of the earth’s orbits are the main space powers: Russia (USSR), the USA and China account for more than 90% of all debris in near space, and the share of each country is approximately the same.

All space debris is of terrestrial origin, but it itself is heterogeneous. The smallest share of the number of objects moving in orbit is made up of operational spacecraft (no more than 6%). All other objects are of no value and are completely garbage. Among them, about 20% are failed satellites and geostationary objects, 17% are upper stages and spent rocket stages, and the remaining approximately 55% are various waste from space activities and the results of collisions and explosions.

Russia, the USA and China are the biggest polluters in space.

What is the danger?

The main danger is not the debris itself, orbiting the Earth, but collisions with it. For spacecraft launched from Earth, a collision with even a centimeter fragment can lead to fatal consequences, that is, failure of the device, its destruction and, consequently, the formation of new debris. Not only and not so much the launch of humans to the International Space Station and the ISS scientific program are under threat, but also commercial launches. Failure of satellites due to collisions with space debris is already a reality.

Small debris poses the greatest danger, since large ones can be avoided by promptly noticing and recalculating the flight path of the spacecraft.

Another danger of space debris that threatens human activity is the fall of fragments onto the surface of the planet. Unlike orbital collisions, in this case the main danger is posed by large fragments - after all, they have a chance to at least partially reach the surface without burning up in the upper layers of the atmosphere. In such a situation, we can only hope that the fragments will fall in a desert area and not on some large city.

Large pieces of space debris can fall to Earth, and this can lead to tragedy

The Kessler effect (syndrome) is a hypothetical situation in which debris accumulated in Earth's orbit will make near space inaccessible to humanity. The syndrome got its name from NASA space agency consultant Donald Kessler, who first presented such a scenario in detail in his research.

The essence of the Kessler effect is the constantly increasing density of objects in low-Earth orbit and, consequently, increasing the likelihood of a collision between two large objects. The result of such a collision should be the formation of many smaller fragments, thus, each of them can also collide with other fragments in the future. According to Kessler, the density of space debris will increase exponentially.

A large explosion or collision in Earth's orbit is considered especially dangerous, as a result of which nearby outer space can be completely contaminated with fragments, and after that space will become completely inaccessible to humans.

The Kessler effect could make space inaccessible to humans

According to NASA calculations, already in 2007 there was enough debris in low-Earth orbit (from 200 to 2000 km above the Earth's surface) to begin implementing the scenario. Probable major impacts should occur on average every 5 years even if all further space launches are cancelled.

Methods for removing space debris

Humanity has not yet developed effective ways to combat space debris. Scientists offer several options for solving the problem, but each of them looks either fantastically expensive or unrealizable within the framework of the current state of science, and most often combines both of these shortcomings. However, since the threat of space debris is real, the most realistic options for cleaning up near-Earth space are proposed. Among them, three main methods of control can be distinguished: collection, disposal and correction of flight trajectories.

One of the most rational ideas proposed by NASA is to use powerful ground-based continuous laser systems. A variation of this method is the use of space laser systems.

Of course, the imagination draws pictures in the spirit of “Star Wars”, where the debris would be annihilated by a shot from a laser gun. However, the reality is somewhat more trivial. With the help of lasers, you can only adjust the flight path of the fragments, which would allow you to avoid a collision. To do this, each fragment must be exposed to laser radiation daily for 1–2 hours. This will allow you to adjust the speed of movement by a few centimeters per second, but due to the enormous speed indicators, such an impact will significantly change the trajectory. Only such a model will make it possible to implement the idea at reasonable prices - one laser installation, as well as the accompanying infrastructure, will cost “only” several tens of millions of dollars.

Fighters against space debris have to take note of ideas from Star Wars

The European Space Agency has developed several alternative ideas.

• A concept similar to laser systems, in which a jet stream is used instead. Firing a jet stream from the Earth is impossible, so implementation will require powerful spacecraft. Naturally, such an idea can only be realized when firing at large space objects that threaten the planet or stationary satellites.
• Capture debris using a network and further transport the debris to a disposal orbit that exceeds geostationary orbit by 235 kilometers. It is this height that was chosen as the site for disposal of spent satellites. However, a similar experiment by Japanese scientists with an attempt to capture garbage using a 700-meter network failed at the end of 2016.
• According to another concept, transportation should be carried out by a spacecraft using a solar sail as a source of propulsion energy.
• Well, the last idea involves attaching a jet engine to each individual fragment and manually transporting large objects to a disposal orbit.

Today, third-party concepts for combating garbage look fantastic and unrealizable at the level of modern scientific thought. Among them:

• the use of robots transporting debris from orbit to the surface of the Earth;
• exposing the debris to a cloud of tungsten dust, which would increase the weight of each object and force them out of orbit;
• launching a special satellite whose purpose will be to catch debris, etc.

Be that as it may, humanity will have to develop a really working model in the coming decades.

There are several interesting facts associated with space debris that are of interest not only to those who are directly involved in this problem, but also to anyone interested in popular science.

The speed of movement of debris in space is very high, so it is difficult for a person to deal with space debris

• The speed of mutual movement of debris in low-Earth orbit is 10 kilometers per second. It is the high speed of movement that is one of the main difficulties in the fight against space debris.
• From the beginning of the space age until the 1980s, the USSR and the USA conducted a number of tests of anti-satellite weapons in outer space, which resulted in the formation of a huge amount of debris rotating in geostationary orbit. Up to 7% of all debris in near space is the result of just such tests.
• At the beginning of this century, China also joined such tests. In 2007, an anti-satellite missile destroyed the disused Chinese satellite Fengyun-1. The result is the formation of thousands of new debris in orbit.
• In 1983, when the American shuttle collided with a tiny grain of sand (0.2 mm in diameter), a deep crack formed on the window of the device.
• In February 2009, the largest space accident occurred due to the collision of two large geostationary objects. Two communications satellites collided in space: the American Iridium and the failed Russian Cosmos-2251. The result is the formation of about 600 large and small fragments.

Space debris is a new problem that humanity has encountered in the exploration of near space. There is no clear solution to the problem facing the main space powers. All the main methods of getting rid of space debris are faced with either excessive cost or the inability to provide an effective technical solution. However, the accumulation of debris in geostationary orbit can already threaten not only controlled flights to near-Earth space, but also the terrestrial settlements themselves. So finding ways to solve the problem is one of the main tasks facing space powers in the near future.