![]() ![]() “It’s a technological problem we’ve created, … driven by our own choices.” Like climate change, he says that the issue of space debris stems from humans polluting and abusing a common resource, in this case, the environment of space. “It's probably the one of the most important environmental problems of our time,” says Hugh Lewis, an astronautical engineer at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom. Earth’s debris field now includes 27,000 cataloged objects-from paint chips to spent rocket stages-all which threaten to damage spacefaring investments that cost millions of dollars. The incident came just eight months after the ISS sidestepped another, larger piece of debris. Earlier this year, a gaping hole was discovered in a 58-feet-long arm of the ISS, thought to be caused by an object too tiny to track. They’re much more than a minor inconvenience-functional satellites, space shuttles that ferry astronauts back and forth and the International Space Station (ISS) all have to dodge and weave through the detritus. ELSA-d is a demonstration device designed to show that space debris removal is possible.ĭecades of space exploration have left a shroud of space junk enveloping Earth. ![]()
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