First it was the plastic islands in the ocean, now it's space junk
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The Kessler Syndrome is named after former NASA scientist Donald Kessler, who laid out the basic idea in a seminal 1978 paper.
In that study, titled "," Kessler and co-author Burton Cour-Palais noted that the likelihood of satellite collisions increases as more and more spacecraft are lofted to orbit. And each such smashup would have an outsized impact on the orbital environment.
"Satellite collisions would produce orbiting fragments, each of which would increase the probability of further collisions, leading to the growth of a belt of debris around the Earth," the duo wrote. "The debris flux in such an Earth-orbiting belt could exceed the natural meteoroid flux, affecting future spacecraft designs."
The Kessler Syndrome describes, and warns of, a cascade of orbital debris that could potentially hinder humanity's space ambitions and activities down the road. The original paper predicted that collisions would become a source of space junk by the year 2000, if not sooner, unless humanity changed how it lofted payloads to orbit. But a timeline is not essential to the core idea.
"It was never intended to mean that the cascading would occur over a period of time as short as days or months. Nor was it a prediction that the current environment was above some critical threshold," Kessler wrote in a that clarified the definition of the Kessler Syndrome and discussed its implications.
"The 'Kessler Syndrome' was meant to describe the phenomenon that random collisions between objects large enough to catalogue would produce a hazard to spacecraft from small debris that is greater than the natural meteoroid environment," he added. "In addition, because the random collision frequency is non-linear with debris accumulation rates, the phenomenon will eventually become the most important long-term source of debris, unless the accumulation rate of larger, non-operational objects (e.g., non-operational payloads and upper-stage rocket bodies) in Earth orbit were significantly reduced."
oldslowandugly
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So not only have we shitted up the land and oceans, now we are shitting up space? C'mon Planet 'B' !
Lily
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With all the satellites that are launched, it's been true for a long time. I think they're aging and who knows what that means.
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I saw that. It was like a giant wheel.
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Oh dude, you have no idea. Ever see "Gravity"?
oldslowandugly
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Yes, good flick, but I think most gets burned up if it drops down through the atmosphere, yes? Like all the meteorites that come our way get mostly burned up. 'Shooting Stars' I think they are called.
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Everything in space is orbiting, supposedly. Gravity is a function of falling into the curve, so to speak.
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She survives that. LOL
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