Earth’s Lower Orbit Has become the U.S.’s Newest Junkyard
(Getty)
Each year thousands upon thousands of satellites are launched into the lower orbit with little regard over the risks these machines pose. As of 2022, there are an estimated 40,000 tracked pieces of satellite and spacecraft debris floating around our planet of the numerous more known to exist. According to the U.S. Space Command, most of the debris in our lower atmospheric orbit stems from collisions between the surplus of satellites in space, the majority of which isn’t being tracked by the U.S. Regrettably, there is a growing number of commercial companies, civil departments, and U.S. Military branches contributing to this pollution, carelessly launching satellites each year into our already congested orbit. The potential threat of collision between two satellites has never been greater.
These satellites have multiple uses that impact our everyday lives such as providing internet, communication across the globe, and most commonly, gathering & exchanging data from all forms of media. A collision between two working satellites can put into jeopardy at least two of these major resources we depend on. It stands that the United States’s lack of responsibility and action in addressing the thousands of satellite debris in Earth’s lower orbit since the 1960s has been and still is a hazardous problem.
With the ever-increasing debris filling up our orbit, the United States continues to push back initiatives to clean up some of the larger pieces of junk in space. Since the early 60s, they deemed the issue a long-term problem, that is, a trivial concern the government thought should be dealt with over a large expanse of time. Instead, primitive attention was redirected to managing space traffic. They focused on active and functioning satellites instead of the immense amount of inactive satellites that have a greater likelihood of colliding. Darren McKnight, a senior technical member of the International Academy of Astronautics Space Debris Committee, asserts that in the United States, the focus of space traffic management is active satellites and making sure they don’t collide with each other nor get hit by space debris. He goes on to mention that not enough attention is paid to debris management. But if space debris isn’t being managed, how can collisions be avoided?
In recent years, NASA has implemented preventative measures to avoid minimal collisions rather than addressing the root of the problem. The construction of NASA’s Pizza Box project was set in place as a “debris avoidance maneuver,” keeping objects inside a 30-by-30-mile “Pizza Box” sized area in the lower orbit to protect essential satellites and spacecraft like the International Space Station. Though these measures are a step in the right direction, they continue to overlook the necessity of removing debris.
In June of 2018, former President Donald Trump signed a directive on a space policy that diverted all responsibility for the U.S.'s space debris policies from the U.S. military to the Department of Commerce, a civilian agency that predominantly regulates business, not space affairs. And even today, with a new president in office, there has been no directive that modifies the policy. Averting the pollution of our orbit is not an unattainable goal. The United States bears the power to take action but in an unsurprising act of negligence, has instead settled the matter by lowering the cost of launching satellites into the lower orbit.
A lower cost of satellite launches results in a higher quantity of them going into space, further increasing the likelihood of satellites being abandoned after a launch. Here is the problem: there is no requirement for retrieving abandoned satellites, which account for over 95% of the junk in orbit. These inactive satellites fuel the risk of a massive collision, leaving eternal fragments of debris in their wake. With the rise of technological advancements amongst prominent satellite companies, such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Amazon, which are taking advantage of the lowered cost, the number of satellites being launched into the lower orbit has more than tripled over the years. A law that could rectify the price of satellite launches and regulate the number of satellites entering the orbit would hold the United States accountable. With such conceivable laws in place, the overall positive impact it could have on collision prevention amongst satellites and debris cleanup would steadily guide us in the right direction.
While the United States continues to juggle fault and action for their space junk poses, large space debris emitted from inactive spacecraft set off warnings of a possible collision in operational satellites on a daily basis. The U.S. Airforce, the personnel responsible for reporting these warnings, issues 21 warnings on average per day. Over the years, the number of warnings has only amplified. If this continues to be left unaddressed, it will have harmful implications. The U.S. continues to overlook this abiding issue and dismisses the detrimental effects of a possible collision as insignificant. Millions of particles will color the lower orbit after a single collision and inhabit it so long as the issue isn’t managed. For instance, in 2009, a U.S. commercial satellite collided with the inactive Russian communications satellite Cosmos 2251. The aftermath of the crash resulted in a superabundance of new debris that now endangers active satellites in orbit.
A collision between two satellites traveling at the same speed can cause a massive setback to the few who are attempting to find solutions within the United States. Moriba Jah, an aerodynamicist at the University of Texas is one of the few researchers who are attempting to create a breakthrough in the space community by discovering methods to track debris in hopes of preventing an imminent collision. Jah claims, “I want to make space a place that is safe to operate, that is free and useful for future generations.” He continues to work side-by-side with the U.S. Airforce as they gather and study information on the debris orbiting the lower orbit. Another alliance that has noticed the growing pollution in orbit is the United States Department of Defense (colloquially known as The Pentagon). After a piece of debris cracked a window on the International Space Station in May of 2021, the Pentagon expressed its concern over the harm it may have had if it’d been a satellite used for missile defense or a navigation system for munitions.
Their growing awareness of the matter has prompted them to establish a program called Orbital Prime. The program was administered under the U.S. Space Force, and it aims to fund organizations' money to develop the technology necessary to begin cleaning up the junk in space. As of this year, The Pentagon and U.S. Space Force are attempting to distribute the money through a series of phases and tests in hopes of discovering innovative minds and research institutions that can help advance technology in the areas needed for debris cleanup. In phase one of the program, companies can expect to win awards for up to $250,000, with as much as $1.5 million in phase two of testing.
As incredible as the Pentagon's program is in taking a step towards cleaning up the U.S.’s junkyard in space, our nation’s persistent imprudence carries inevitable consequences. Not only is the U.S. behind in the race to clean up, but their late start in developments has significantly slowed them down compared to other countries that began development in the mid-nineties. Japan, for example, which produced the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, has scheduled to send up a spacecraft named Astroscale into the lower orbit to clean up after a collision with one of their rockets for 2023. In the last few years, the International Space Station has scarcely managed to maneuver away from one close collision. It only further provokes the question of how much longer will the ISS be forced to avoid space debris as a result of the U.S.’s outdated negligence. At some point, won't there be a limit to how much more we can manage?