G2Rad
3rd February 2011, 01:43 PM
Space so full of junk that a satellite collision could destroy communications on Earth through uncontrolled chain reaction.
The volume of abandoned rockets, shattered satellites, nuts, bolts, gloves, missile shrapnel and other debris in the Earth’s orbit is reaching a “tipping point”,
The “chain reaction” could leave some orbits so cluttered with debris that they become unusable for commercial or military satellites, the US Defense Department's interim Space Posture Review warned last year.
there are now more than 370,000 pieces of junk between 490 and 620 miles above the planet and it is getting worse every month.
The February 2009 crash between a defunct Russian Cosmos satellite and an Iridium Communications Inc. satellite left around 1,500 pieces of junk whizzing around the earth at 4.8 miles a second
A Chinese missile test destroyed a satellite in January 2007, leaving 150,000 pieces of debris
"This is almost the tipping point," Dr Gopalaswamy said. "No satellite can be reliably shielded against this kind of destructive force."
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01518/space-junk_1518051c.jpg
the link ... (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/8295546/Space-so-full-of-junk-that-a-satellite-collision-could-destroy-communications-on-Earth.html)
The volume of abandoned rockets, shattered satellites, nuts, bolts, gloves, missile shrapnel and other debris in the Earth’s orbit is reaching a “tipping point”,
The “chain reaction” could leave some orbits so cluttered with debris that they become unusable for commercial or military satellites, the US Defense Department's interim Space Posture Review warned last year.
there are now more than 370,000 pieces of junk between 490 and 620 miles above the planet and it is getting worse every month.
The February 2009 crash between a defunct Russian Cosmos satellite and an Iridium Communications Inc. satellite left around 1,500 pieces of junk whizzing around the earth at 4.8 miles a second
A Chinese missile test destroyed a satellite in January 2007, leaving 150,000 pieces of debris
"This is almost the tipping point," Dr Gopalaswamy said. "No satellite can be reliably shielded against this kind of destructive force."
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01518/space-junk_1518051c.jpg
the link ... (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/8295546/Space-so-full-of-junk-that-a-satellite-collision-could-destroy-communications-on-Earth.html)