ESA Report: The Number Of Space Debris Collisions Is Predicted To Increase

Illustration of space junk (photo: dock. NASA JPL)

JAKARTA The European Space Agency (ESA) released a 2024 Space Environment Report on satellites and debris that surrounds Earth's orbit. This report shows that space debris is getting worse. Based on the results of ESA's surveillance network tracking, there are more than 35,000 objects in space today. About 26,000 of them are debris originating from satellite pieces or spacecraft of a size of more than 4 inches. The problem of garbage piling up in space is indeed being considered by various agencies and space companies from various countries. Not a few have taken the initiative to reduce the amount of their waste. However, instead of decreasing, this space junk is actually piling up even more. According to the ESA, all objects surrounding the current orbit have created, "unsustainable environments in the long term." The problem of space debris is not easily overcome because the amount of reduced waste and the vehicle sent into space is not balanced. The ESA explains in its report that humans are increasingly liking satellite launches. Currently, the number of satellites launched into orbit is much more than before. It seems that this is due to the intense launch of the Starlink satellite SpaceX has carried out over the past few years.

Currently, there are more than 6,000 satellites stationed in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) with an altitude of 500 to 600 kilometers above Earth's surface. This region looks like an obstacle-free road, but it is a mess. This situation is expected to get worse in the coming years. If space gets denser and causes collisions between debris, a chain reaction can appear and destroy the surrounding satellites. In addition, these collisions will endanger spacecraft and critical infrastructure such as Earth monitoring telescopes or space stations. According to ESA predictions, the number of space debris collisions will increase significantly. However, collisions that will be more frequent and perhaps this extreme will not occur in the near future. If the ESA calculation is correct, these poor space conditions will occur in the next decades, precisely in 2225.