Tag Archives: satellite

Careful with That Orbit Now

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Scientists and aerospace engineers alike have long been worried about the consequences of junking Earth’s orbit^. On this site the topic was first mentioned shortly after North Korea put an (apparently) useless satellite^ up there. This is a serious issue, as highlighted by this year’s conference on space debris, which was understandably worried about recent initiatives that consist of launching entire constellations of micro-satellites:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/04/21/thousands-of-tiny-satellites-are-about-to-go-into-space-and-possibly-ruin-it-forever^

The title of the article linked above is a bit misleading, as it is often the case with these for-profit media publications that rely on grabbing attention. No, this won’t ruin our orbit “forever”. But if the worst comes to pass, it will, however, ruin it for a couple of generations. So, from a single person’s perspective, it is forever.

Should we expect the worst to happen? With SpaceX alone planning to plant about 3000 (yes, that’s three thousand) satellites in orbit during the next decade, I think it is a valid concern. Especially as this is done with little (if any) preparation to mitigate orbital pollution:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-26/elon-musk-s-plan-to-girdle-earth-with-satellites-hits-turbulence^

We’re being reckless with our satellite launches. This can cause an orbital catastrophe that might see us lose a lot of our assets there, leading to an informational collapse. So far, I haven’t seen any of these organizations that dump junk around the orbit even consider a valid, peer-reviewed de-orbiting strategy. This seems extremely short-sighted for a species that is increasingly relying on its extra-terrestrial ventures.

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Junking Earth’s Orbit

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How many times did I tell you to stop leaving your toys all over the floor!? Sorry, I meant orbit:

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/ISRO_Creates_World_Record_PSLV_Takes_Off_With_104_Satellites_999.html^

First of all, congratulations to India for launching 104 satellites in one shot. Congratulations also to the various organizations that will advance science through the various experiments on board them satellites. However…

I have said it in the past^ as well. We’re being careless with our orbital activities. It’s not only our forests and seas that we’re spoiling, but also our lovely planet’s orbital space. And like the environment down here, there’s only one up there and once we’ve ruined it, it’ll take a long time to fix.

Sure, there’s a lot more space up there, even if we only consider close Earth orbit. But if we keep launching our tech-junk with little foresight one day we might get hit by the nasty Kessler syndrome^, and then we’ll see decades of technological progress thrown out the window, not to mention it’ll be very difficult for anything to leave Earth until we clean the mess up. At least it’ll be some measure of defense against alien immigrants?

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North Korea’s Most Dangerous Weapon: Incompetence

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As you might know, on the 7th of February 2016, North Korea launched an “Earth observation satellite”. Governments across the world were probably right in condemning the operation. The same type of rocket can also be used for nuclear warfare.

What about the satellite? Well, apparently it’s tumbling in orbit, useless:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/news/a19365/north-korean-satellite-is-tumbling-in-orbit/^

Fun fact: there are about 2000 satellites orbiting our planet and an estimated 300.000 pieces of space junk. On average, we’re losing one satellite per year. A collision between two satellites could have dire consequences.

One of those consequences has a name. It’s called the Kessler syndrome: a cascade of collisions that would exponentially increase the amount of orbital junk. It would ultimately mean the swift destruction of most of our fleet of satellites:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome^

North Korea can be all sorts of dangerous, especially since it couldn’t care less about any advice coming from the international community. Dictator Kim Jong-un is therefore free to play “launch the satellite” and “detonate nuclear bombs underground”.

Unfortunately for all of us, disasters don’t care much about the grandiose desires of totalitarian leaders. North Korea’s most recent failure casts an ominous shadow over all of its scientific and military programs. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like being in the same boat with a drunken madman armed with explosives. For the sake of all of us, I hope the intoxication wears off, and soon.

Note: the drunken man analogy is not directed at North Korea or at Kim Jong-un. Rather, it’s an analogy of the entire socio-political situation over there. I believe that we, as a society, should work together to help educate the future political class and those that vote people in power. Kim Jong-un is a son of Earth just like all of us. The reasons of his behavior can be found in his upbringing and surrounding social climate. The same can be said of all of us. If we change the social environment, we change our civilization.

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