Hypervelocity...it sounds like speed on speed and in some ways, it is. You could call it 3,000 meters or 10,000 feet per second--which essentially translates to climbing the tallest peak in the Rocky Mountains in one second or another way to look at is Mach 8.8--essentially, traveling WAY above the speed of sound. And that's what's happening high above our heads, every second, of every day...in space. But WHAT is doing the actual traveling? And ultimately, why should you care--afterall, we are talking about space, not Earth?
Space is a relative term, like everything in the physical world, it is relative to our planet--which happens to be floating in space as well. Close to 12,000 objects mnimally 4-inches wide or more are floating in Earth's low orbit. Another 10,000 smaller objects are also floating around the planet. It's called the Kessler Syndrome, and it's come to a planet near you....
In the 1970's, astrophysicist Donald Kessler theorized the potential for a dense orbital belt created around the Earth via space pollution or space garbage--bits and pieces of spacecrafts and satellites and probes that survived collisions and now orbit the Earth. Earth is no Saturn--we're not supposed to have rings. Why not? Because that kind of orbital ring would be so super-dense, nothing could penetrate it. Kessler's theory wasn't taken seriously until last year in February 2009 when the world witnessed its first hypervelocity space junk collision. An Iridium communications satellite collided with a defunct Russian satellite in orbit over Siberia. Boom! 2,000 more pieces of space junk were added to our growing orbital belt. NASA has a division that studies this "phenomenon"--though it's hardly a phenomenon. Humans caused it. And like so many other human-centric problems, causing the problem is often easier than finding the solution.
NASA had a conference in December 2009 to address the issue...so take heart, planet Earth--the leaders in the field only took ten months AFTER the collision to get together and discuss the problem. I know you're as relieved as I am. The UN addressed the issue in 2007, recommending measures like draining pieces of space junk of any fuel to minimize explosions--but we're talking about hypervelocity, not chevy's traveling at 60 mph! With or without explosive fuels, when objects traveling at super-speeds collide, there's going to be an explosion. Perhaps not a fiery explosion, but an explosion of bits and pieces of metals adding to a growing orbital belt of space junk. Once again, the UN astounds with its uncanny ability to solve the big problems of this world.
Of course, sarcasm helps no one, and it certainly doesn't clear away any of the space polluition that is but one more acutely problematic environmental issue humans have managed to accumulate since the industial revolution in the 1800's. I've said it before and I have to say it again--we NEED to start IMPROVING science education, particularly encouraging young minds to enter the fascinating world of astrophysics. It's as much of an imperative as eating the appropriate caloric intake in a given day. We're going to need mechanical engineers, industrial engineers, software engineers, and computer engineers as well to collaborate on what IS the future of humanity: SPACE.
We have good people working at NASA and other world organizations looking for solutions to what is an expanding problem...and though the universe is expanding at an accelerated rate, our galaxy is not. It's hard to attract good minds in astrophysics because it's not a particularly lucrative field. If you're talented in the sciences, there are other directions you can go and make more money. Perhaps that's one of the first calls to business a future globalized government has to tackle, not only improving science education but attracting people to a dwindling professional field with financial incentives. Because by 2050, we'll be lucky to see any stars in the night sky. Communications will be interrupted on a regular basis--everything from cell phones to the internet will be affected. And a plethora of other inevitable side-effects from having an inpenetrable ring of space junk polluting Earth's orbit.
Scary stuff. But it doesn't have to be. Humankind has the answer. Let's not wait too long to find it....
Space is a relative term, like everything in the physical world, it is relative to our planet--which happens to be floating in space as well. Close to 12,000 objects mnimally 4-inches wide or more are floating in Earth's low orbit. Another 10,000 smaller objects are also floating around the planet. It's called the Kessler Syndrome, and it's come to a planet near you....
In the 1970's, astrophysicist Donald Kessler theorized the potential for a dense orbital belt created around the Earth via space pollution or space garbage--bits and pieces of spacecrafts and satellites and probes that survived collisions and now orbit the Earth. Earth is no Saturn--we're not supposed to have rings. Why not? Because that kind of orbital ring would be so super-dense, nothing could penetrate it. Kessler's theory wasn't taken seriously until last year in February 2009 when the world witnessed its first hypervelocity space junk collision. An Iridium communications satellite collided with a defunct Russian satellite in orbit over Siberia. Boom! 2,000 more pieces of space junk were added to our growing orbital belt. NASA has a division that studies this "phenomenon"--though it's hardly a phenomenon. Humans caused it. And like so many other human-centric problems, causing the problem is often easier than finding the solution.
NASA had a conference in December 2009 to address the issue...so take heart, planet Earth--the leaders in the field only took ten months AFTER the collision to get together and discuss the problem. I know you're as relieved as I am. The UN addressed the issue in 2007, recommending measures like draining pieces of space junk of any fuel to minimize explosions--but we're talking about hypervelocity, not chevy's traveling at 60 mph! With or without explosive fuels, when objects traveling at super-speeds collide, there's going to be an explosion. Perhaps not a fiery explosion, but an explosion of bits and pieces of metals adding to a growing orbital belt of space junk. Once again, the UN astounds with its uncanny ability to solve the big problems of this world.
Of course, sarcasm helps no one, and it certainly doesn't clear away any of the space polluition that is but one more acutely problematic environmental issue humans have managed to accumulate since the industial revolution in the 1800's. I've said it before and I have to say it again--we NEED to start IMPROVING science education, particularly encouraging young minds to enter the fascinating world of astrophysics. It's as much of an imperative as eating the appropriate caloric intake in a given day. We're going to need mechanical engineers, industrial engineers, software engineers, and computer engineers as well to collaborate on what IS the future of humanity: SPACE.
We have good people working at NASA and other world organizations looking for solutions to what is an expanding problem...and though the universe is expanding at an accelerated rate, our galaxy is not. It's hard to attract good minds in astrophysics because it's not a particularly lucrative field. If you're talented in the sciences, there are other directions you can go and make more money. Perhaps that's one of the first calls to business a future globalized government has to tackle, not only improving science education but attracting people to a dwindling professional field with financial incentives. Because by 2050, we'll be lucky to see any stars in the night sky. Communications will be interrupted on a regular basis--everything from cell phones to the internet will be affected. And a plethora of other inevitable side-effects from having an inpenetrable ring of space junk polluting Earth's orbit.
Scary stuff. But it doesn't have to be. Humankind has the answer. Let's not wait too long to find it....
RSS Feed