Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-68.132.187.232-20170416174603/@comment-27819070-20170425012339

68.132.187.232 wrote: 188.182.215.87 wrote: 96.250.185.108 wrote: As it is today, earth orbit is littered with space debris,not to mention metorite, making it a dangerous place. Being in orbit for a 100 years would be like playing russian roulette. I actually had this discussion with a astrophycisist at the kennedy space center a while ago (unrelated to the 100 show though) about the issue of space debris. I had asked him about it since i had found Gravity (the movie) a little unrealistic, with how it handles space debris. He said and i qoute (to the best of my ability, it was a while ago) "We have a lot of problems when sending up rockets into space, funny enough though, space debris and meteorites are not one of them. While it IS true that debris in space can cause a lot of damage, theres actually not that much considering the amount of space it's spread out across. Furthermore, we're actually really good at knowing what is up there. We have a whole system to keep tabs on both the debris and the satilites in orbit. Should any debris be headed for a satilite we make sure to then adjust that satilites orbit to avoid any damage."

Space is becoming more dangerous with every new satellite launch. As the pace of launches increase, so will the risk. We can track  bigger objects, but objects smaller than 1/2 inch are unknown an pose a real danger in orbit. There's an article in the  April 21,New York Times (free online)  that can explain the problem of space debris. It is for that reason that Roscosmos and the CNSA have begun using increasingly more "satellite killers" and earth to space missile systems, in an effort to destroy old debris which no longer serves a purpose. In addition to this, most satellites, by design, fall back into the atmosphere and burn up on re-entry several years after they have ceased functioning. It's an issue, but not one that's going unmanaged or without counter balances.