What is the danger to earthlings and space tourists?

Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, believes that ” Collisions are proportional to the square of the number of orbiting vehicles In other words, he continues: If you have 10 times more satellites, you will have 100 times more collisions. It’s mathematics. »

Also with debris moving at 28,000 km/h, the risk of collision with space stations such as the International Space Station or others under construction and to a lesser extent, the upcoming capsules for docking there are still serious threats. And what about future hotels, platforms or space stations in the coming years.

If the protection of the terminals is resistant to small objects, this is not the case for larger ones, the site indicates youmatter.world/en In 2020 alone, three maneuvers were necessary for the International Space Station to avoid some of these large objects.

based on the so-calledKessler syndrome‘, from the name of the astrophysicist who theorized this phenomenon, namely that The collision of two debris leads to an abundance of debris which will in turn lead to new collisions, so it is time to take measures to reduce space pollution.

” With New Space, we launched a lot of new things and new apps. We also have a lot of rules, norms, and standards to avoid debris breeding, but we don’t enforce them. I wouldn’t have said this ten years ago, but the current situation is really worrying »

These observations to Latribune.fr dated June 28, 2021 by Christophe Bonal, an expert in the CNES Launchers Directorate, summarize the problem posed by debris and waste pollution in space.