Human Space Debris: It's A Serious Problemo
Because humankind is notorious for its short-sightedness (moles too), we've shot so much shit into orbit that it's all starting to crash into each other and, soon, you won't even be able to shake a stick at heaven without hitting some broken-off piece of a satellite. Wonderful.
The situation we're in now is called the Kessler Syndrome, a term named after Kessler, in which the amount of debris has reached a critical threshold. There is now enough orbital debris that collisions will cause a continual cascade, with each adding to the total amount of debris and increasing the chances of further collisions, according to several studies, Kessler said.
"Even if we add nothing else to orbit, the amount of debris could continue to increase as a result of random collisions between fairly large objects," Kessler said. "You'd generate debris faster than the natural decay process could return it."
Great, so now I won't even be able to blast off without a piece of junk flying through my windshield vacuumshield and killing me. And I didn't even make to the moon! Basically, my whole bucket list is f***ed now.
Space Junk Problem Is More Threatening Than Ever, Report Warns [foxnews]
Thanks to postmortal, who may or may yes be an angel.
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