Another Moon For Our Sizeable Collection
This story from the BBC about the earth’s recent acquisition of a ‘third moon’ reminds me of a thoroughly depressing section from Envisioning Information by Edward R. Tufte which is worth quoting here at length.
Each at least as big as this drawing of the earth [which in the book measures about 19cm], some 7,000 pieces of space debris—operating and dead satellites, explosion fragments from rocket engines, garbage bags and frozen sewage dumped by astronauts, shrapnel from antisatellite weapons tests, 34 nuclear reactors and their fuel cores, an ecaped wrench and a toothbrush—now orbit our world. Only about 5 percent are working satellites. By means of extraordinary data recording and analysis, military computers identify and then track each of these 7,000 objects (≥10 cm in diameter), in order to differentiate the debris from a missile attack, for which we may be thankful. Space is not totally self-cleaning; some of the stuff will be up there for centuries, endagering people and satellites working in space as well as inducing spurious astronomical observations. The risk of a damaging collision is perhaps 1 in 500 during several years in orbit. The volume of debris has doubled every 5 years; future testing of space weapons will accelerate the trashing of space.
He then provides another drawing showing a wider view with the geosynchronous ring of junk.
The consequences (as of 0:00 hours Universal time, July 1, 1987) are shown in these phenomenal and disheartening micro/macro images, as a multiplicity of 7,000 dots adds to the overall pattern of orbital pollution. Most of the debris is relatively close to earth; a more distant view shows the ring formed by geosynchronous satellites. Not shown are some 50,000 smaller objects (size between 1 cm and 10 cm), as well as 10 billion to 100 billion paint chips now in orbit.
Imagine for a moment that there was even a single other species as dirty as we are, and any hope we may have for the survival of the planet instantly evaporates.
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Posted to Oh, the Humanity • 2002.09.14 (Sat) • 23:08
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