How often do you think about space? Probably not enough – considering how much we use it every day. We rely on the thousands of satellites up there to keep our modern lives running smoothly. But there's an explosive threat approaching on the horizon. Space junk. Satellites up in space beam TV signals and phone calls around the world. They facilitate Google Maps, GPS and the internet, bank transactions, the stock market, disaster planning, military surveillance, and air traffic control. They help predict weather patterns and crop farming. They provide data on the oceans, outer space and global warming. And that's just a few examples. But ... "Houston, we have a problem." In the race to set up satellites, no one was thinking about future sustainability up in space. So how much junk have we put up into orbit and how are we going to clean it up? It's tempting to see our space environment as this romanticized, floating paradise, filled with nothing. But actually, lower earth orbit has never been more crowded. 2022 broke all records for space launches, with more than 2,000 spacecraft going into orbit. But it's not just functioning, useful tech up there. Thousands of dead and broken satellites, old rocket parts, and general bits of man-made space debris are flying around Earth at high speed, too. And the threat of collisions is becoming a huge problem. With orbiting speeds of up to 28 thousand kilometres an hour, one tiny screw colliding with a spacecraft can have the same impact as a hand grenade. "In the ocean, if a plastic bottle makes its way there it could fragment into thousands of tiny pieces." Imogen Napper is a scientist researching polluted environments. "Now, the same is seen for space debris, but they can collide, they can explode, and thousands of tiny pieces can also be created up in space. Once something is so small, it's far harder to try and remove." We've been launching satellites since the 1950s, with no plan or system for cleaning anything up. Because surely the great thing about space is – There's so much space?! Well, fast forward to today – with more than 90 countries operating up there, and an estimated 17,000 new satellites set to be launched by 2030. And we could be on course to creating a superjunk space highway. "If we don't do anything, it's going to eventually lead to some areas of Earth's orbit being unusable for future generations. And it's just another environment that we have polluted with waste." The good news is, there are some big tech players working to make our space race more sustainable. Former Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak heads a company called Privateer. The company is tracking over 27,000 larger pieces of space debris in real time to try and stop explosive collisions from happening. Their competition LEOLABS – which provides a similar debris tracking service – say they are sending out more than 400 million collision alerts to satellites every month But it's not an ideal fix, there are hundreds of millions of space junk pieces whizzing around that are too small to track. Also – manoeuvring your satellite to avoid a collision costs thousands of dollars each time. "But then there's another cost which is the science cost." Jan Siminski is a space debris analyst for the European Space Agency. "So in our case, we have to switch off an instrument on board to perform the avoidance manoeuvre. And this means a huge amount of data that is lost. So if you're a scientist, and you wanted to observe this specific region on Earth to measure the ice thickness, that's not gonna happen now." What about if we drastically reduced the number of satellite launches going on? Unfortunately that's not a quick fix either, because every collision in lower earth orbit generates a brand new cloud of debris, causing even more collisions. And eventually a cascading ricochet effect known as the Kessler syndrome. And we definitely want to avoid that. Imogen Napper and her team at Portsmouth University have been comparing space debris to plastic trash in the ocean. "We're advocating that there needs to be an orbital treaty where all nations or industries that are planning on using Earth's orbit or are using Earth's orbit, have to sit around basically a table and say, "We need to decide how we're going to use this area sustainably." We've seen the success of the High Seas Treaty, but that has taken 20 years to come to an agreement. And now we need to act quickly for Earth's orbit before more damage is done." To physically clean up a piece of space junk it has to be de-orbited – which means grabbing it and pushing it down into Earth's atmosphere, where it mostly burns up upon re-entry – like a shooting star. As you can imagine, that's not a cheap operation. "Spacecraft removal mission, especially if it's the first one, and we still have to develop the technology is in the ballpark of 100 million euros. The European Space Agency's first actual removal mission will be launched in 2025 by a Swiss startup called ClearSpace. "The ClearSpace solution is essentially like a tow truck if you want." Luc Piguet is the company's CEO "We have a big grappling system in front of our satellite that makes it possible to pick up a large piece of debris from orbit." Their first challenge will be launching into the right bit of space to catch the piece of debris, rather than just colliding with it. "We have to rendezvous with this object at 28,000 kilometers per hour aligning our speed with this object and then capture it in an environment where there's no friction, and no gravity. So everything floats. Once this is done, we will stabilize the object and slow it down, to reintroduce it into the Earth's atmosphere in the South Pacific over Point Nemo, where the object will burn up." "If the cost is exorbitant, then it's really difficult to find the funds that you need in order to implement these things." Professor Guglielmo Aglietti from the Surrey Space Centre – is working on a lower cost space junk removal concept. "At the moment, the jury is still out on which one the best solution is going to be." His mission – RemoveDebris – trialled a cleanup satellite with a spider-like net to entangle a piece of floating metal and actually harpooned another bit. But even this test trashbusting cost around 15 million euros. Japan-based startup Astroscale is hoping to cut costs by considering the cleanup process right from the very beginning. "Before they launch, we'd like them to put a docking plate on their satellite." Chris Blackerby's team has developed a magnetic arm that can then attach to the metal plate. "It'd be similar to having a hitch on the back of your car, so that a tow truck can come and grab onto it and pull that car out of the way. All satellites should have some kind of capability to be more easily docked with so that they can help reduce future debris. Our long-term goal is to see a circular economy in orbit. So that after you launch a satellite, you're not just saying goodbye and not seeing it ever again, you're actually maintaining it, you're repairing it, you're removing it." The FCC recently brought in a new five-year rule for satellites to be deorbited after completing their missions. But space guidelines are hard to enforce. "And unfortunately, there is no space police that you can send and fine them or do something about that." There's also the issue that one country's cleanup tech could be another's destructive weapon. In Europe, China and Australia "broom" lasers are being developed, that could be fired into space to nudge space junk pieces off an imminent collision course. But Russian forces have recently been suspected of building a giant laser to blind and damage other satellites from the ground. "We have to be careful that we regulate these things, because otherwise they could become, you know, potentially something offensive that people could use to, I don't know, destroy, actually satellites that are doing useful things because as you can imagine satellites are really strategically important for every country. Destroying unwanted or defunct satellites with ground missiles has also been an environmental disaster for lower Earth orbit. "There have been demonstration or tests made by the US in the early stages, then by China, then by India, and lately by Russia. The impact of those weapons on the space environment is worse than the loss of the satellite itself. And mostly because every single exercise generates a massive field of debris. For example, the latest test made by Russia will affect the operations of the ISS for years. So this is a real issue." With the number of satellites in orbit set to increase fourfold by 2030, the risk posed by space junk is increasing rapidly. "The technology is set, especially for the removal mission, it's almost there. So we can do something about it. But there's political commitment that is needed to buy these missions." So if we want to maintain our connected world as we know it, governments, businesses and scientists will need to seriously rethink how we treat our space environment. So what do you think is the best way to clean up space junk? And who should be responsible for doing it? If you like this video and you want to hear more from Planet A, just click on the bell to subscribe and we'll have new videos for you every Friday.
