{"id":63330,"date":"2019-05-26T10:00:20","date_gmt":"2019-05-26T14:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=63330"},"modified":"2025-08-19T09:37:29","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T13:37:29","slug":"growing-space-debris-problem","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/growing-space-debris-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"We need new treaties to address the growing problem of space debris"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n We need new treaties to address the growing problem of space debris\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Space debris<\/a> represents the spread of our scorched-earth habits<\/a> into space. Earth and the orbital space around it are a global commons to which we have been laying waste. And what\u2019s worse, we appear powerless to prevent ourselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the dawn of the space age in 1957, our spacecraft have been jettisoning bits and pieces both deliberately (like launch shrouds) and inadvertently (like exploding fuel tanks). Then, to add insult to injury, dying spacecraft, following their last gasp, are left in orbit as useless relics<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Space flotsam<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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There are 15,888 pieces of debris larger than 10 centimetres in size, including some 2,000 pieces in or intersecting geostationary orbit, the rest being dominantly in the polar orbital band at 800-1,000 kilometres in altitude<\/a>. Smaller sizes are even more plentiful \u2014 it\u2019s estimated there are 500,000 pieces one centimetre in size, and 100 million pieces that are a millimetre in size, all rattling along at orbital speeds of eight to 12 kilometres a second (compared to a rifle bullet travelling at approximately one kilometre a second). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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