Truth about the Skies could be Brutal: but Space Junks could have a Brutal Impact on the Planet

The United States Air Force monitors over twenty- five thousand pieces of space junk each year, pieces bigger than ten centimeters and weighing some nine thousand metric tons altogether, zipping around earth at speeds of ten kilometers per second, or more than twenty-two thousand miles per hour.

A website, Wayfinder Privateer, currently tracks around 35,000 objects in space, many of them bits of garbage, the rest working satellites, fifty percent of the working satellites belonging to Elon Musk's Starlink.

Scientific models track about 29,000 space debris, pieces larger than 10 centimeters, 670,000 for sizes larger than one centimeter, and more than 270 million for sizes larger than one millimeter, moving in the upper parts of the atmosphere.

Other authorities watch junk objects in this setting, and many of them agree that too many objects zip around the globe, with the upper part of the atmosphere likely to be a garbage dump if the trend continues, a place filled with decaying hunks of abandoned  rocket pieces and satellites.

In 2020, commercial and government entities embarked on 114 launches into space, 104 of them crowned with success, total travelers numbering 22, with many of the satellites engaged in research or the exploration of the solar system.

In 2021, private and public institutions carried out 146 orbital launch attempts,  48 humans put in space, the trend towards cost reduction fuelling the situation, through the continued development of smaller rockets by numerous commercial launch providers.

In 2022 alone, private and public establishments carried out more than 180 launches into the upper parts of the atmosphere, most of the objects in the endeavor containing new instruments linked to the internet and other industries, United States’ expenditure on space programs hitting $62 billion, five times the figure for the second placed nation, China.

With public and private agencies increasing their orbital launches on a yearly basis, many objects must zip around the upper atmosphere as junks, making it possible for the setting to be a garbage dump in the future, if the trend persists.

Unfortunately, China just launched the first of its planned 15,000-satellite constellation project, 648 of the satellites to be deployed by 2025, but programs of this scale could complicate the climate change crisis, since rocket launches release carbon dioxide, water vapor, and other pollutants into the atmosphere, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. 

One Web intends to launch 650 internet satellites into orbit, in order to blanket the earth with broadband services, but activities like this could worsen the Earth's climate crisis, as rocket fuels release black carbon particles in the stratosphere,  absorbing sunlight and heating the atmosphere, further contributing to climate change. 

Amazon, the tech giant, plans to launch a network of 3,000 satellites into low earth orbit through Project Kuiper, to provide high speed, low latency broadband on a global scale, but efforts like this could worsen the climate crisis going forwards, as it could alter the atmosphere, causing detrimental environmental effects.

In other words,  satellite launches complicate the climate change crisis, increasing greenhouse gas emissions, releasing black carbon particles, altering the atmosphere through garbage dumps.

According to experts, technologies such as ground and space lasers could prevent the collision of these debris, even when they speed at the rate of 17,000 miles per hour.

Experts also speculate that activities like debris clean-ups could prove important, seen within the context of 170 million pieces of debris in orbit, many of them too little to be tracked.

Some call for initiatives like the recycling of debris, especially as experts track 55,000 pieces of debris, and monitor more than 27,000 objects.

Ultimately, space lasers, clean-ups, and recycling could prove crucial, but the quicker the initiatives the better for humans in the long run, especially as billions of people need to survive a climate change crisis.

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Vegan food from Brazil, Credit, Vegan Cocotte