Space – Orbital Debris

Space debris is the unwanted man-made waste that has been generated as a result of man’s exploratory missions in space. It is found in high concentrations damage to the functional spacecraft and satellites in the lower-earth orbit and poses a grave risk of that make our life on earth convenient. The difficulty and cost of bringing this waste back to earth mean that man has chosen to let it disintegrate on its own.

Our increasing dependency on satellites means that the earth’s lower orbit has’ become valuable real estate, requiring us to clean up the mess. Scientists are using International Space Station and other such spacecraft’s to wipe out the debris. Radar and laser techniques are employed to mark out the debris location and either avoid or destroy the debris. Recent estimates put such debris to be composed mainly of disintegrated fuel material and battery, non-functional space crafts, mission-based junk, and rocket bodies.