Examples Of Sustainability In Space

Sustainability in Space One may think that Earth’s orbit has an unlimited amount of space to hold whatever celestial bodies or satellites it may encounter, but like Earth’s population, there are always limits on space. NASA states that there are over 21,000 objects in Earth’s orbit today that can be considered debris over ten centimeters (Stansbery). Scientists worry about these objects colliding with one another. Collision could cause a major snowball effect that could end up damaging an important satellite or group of satellites that provide us with our everyday privileges, such as television or wireless internet. Space debris is a major problem in Earth’s orbit due to the fact that the quantity our planet’s orbit can withstand is much closer to its limit. The objects that the world puts into space needs to be curtailed and monitored to avoid more collisions, more parts plummeting towards earth, and potential debris causing internet failures or cell phone service failures. Space junk has been prevalent ever since …show more content…
The long term effects of space junk can do much more damage than most anticipate. Like a garbage bag or the world population cap, Earth’s orbit has limits on how much it can hold. Once something exceeds its holding capacity, it bursts. Earth’s orbit would not burst, as it is made because of Earth’s gravitational pull, but it could cause objects to crash into one another and cause them to descend towards Earth at high velocities. This could cause catastrophic damage to our planet. In November of 1995, the US Space Command documented only 7,029 objects in our planet’s orbit (Wytrzyszczak, Lieske, Feldman 367). This number has changed drastically when compared to the millions of debris that are in Earth’s orbit today (Stansbery). The number will only continue to grow unless measures to decrease space debris are