Scientific American - February 2019

78 Scientific American, February 2019

GRAPHIC SCIENCE

Text by Mark Fischetti | Graphic by Jan Willem Tulp

1957

1959

1961

1963

1965

1967

1969

1971

1973

1975

1977

1979

1981

1983

1985

1987

1989

1991

1993

1995

1997

1999

2001

2003

2005

2007

2009

2011

2013

2015

2017

13

80

630

1,180

2,901

3,195

4,040

4,477

4,943

6,293

6,811

6,850

7, 7 5 7

8,246

9, 6 8 2

10,281

9, 6 5 9

10,152

10,497

11,434

11,552

11,855

11,993

11,739

12,615

16,505

18,579

18,412

18,354

18,494

19,738

SOURCES: “SPACE DEBRIS BY THE NUMBERS” (INFORMATION CORRECT A

S OF JANUARY 2018),

EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY

http://www.esa.int; SPACE DEBRIS: THE ESA APPROACH.

ESA BR-336. EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY,

MARCH 2017; ESA SPACE DEBRIS OFFICE

discosweb.esoc.esa.int

( raw data

)

Space Junk

Piles Up

Relentless accumulation

threatens satellites and Earth

S ace i  a t Yet Earth orbits are becoming in-

creasingly littered with debris ( speckled graphic ).

A satellite could be demolished if struck by a

10-centimeter piece of junk, about the size of a

softball. Even a one-centimeter tidbit could dis-

able a spacecraft. And the more functioning, de-

funct or fragmented objects up there, the more

that decay in the atmosphere ( pink stripe ). The

collision problem has become so serious that

in 2016 the European Space Agency (ESA),

which tracks the objects, announced it might

capture derelict satellites in low orbits, start-

ing in 2023. Clutter is rising fast as more coun-

tries and companies launch electronics. In Feb-

ruary 2017 India sent 101 shoebox-sized “cube-

sats” into a low orbit on a single rocket.

Some

craft fall  ac

toward  arth over

time Satellites still

inspace: 4,7 00 ;

still functioning:

1 ,800

China

deli erately

shatters a satellite

in a missile test, creating

,   trac a le fragments

Other breakups,

explosions or collisions

creating debris: more

than 500

Satellites and Debris Orbiting Earth
 ach dot represents an o ec t larger than   centimeters

Tot al o e c t s t r ac e d

ewly added y year

Decayed  y year

Soviet

Union puts

ï›yŠàåïåDïy ̈ ̈Ÿïy

Ÿ ́ï¹åÈD`yÎRocket

launches globally

since then:

5 ,4 00

Small  its in high

or its are impossi le

to trac  The  SAs models

estimate total o ects in all or its

29,000 larger than 10 cm

750,000 from 1 to 10 cm

1 66 million from

1 mm to 1 cm

U 

oins Soviet

Union and US as

asatellite proprietor

Satellites launched

worldwide since

then: 8,650

A Russian

military and US

communications

satellite smash

Shards ejected: more

than 2,000

© 2019 Scientific American