30 October 2021 | New Scientist | 5The leader
ALL eyes are on the COP26 climate summit,
which starts in Glasgow, UK, on Sunday. But
amid the “anarchy”, in the words of former
UK climate minister Ed Miliband, of the hot
phase of negotiations (page 12), in quieter
moments, we might cast our thoughts to
a problem fast brewing further skywards.
In mid 2019, there were 2000 satellites
in orbit. That number has now doubled
in two years, spurred on by the ambitions
of private communications companies.
A third of all satellites belong to just one
swarm: Starlink, operated by SpaceX.
Satellites aren’t bad per se, of course.
They are vital to scientific research,
providing data on everything from the
effects of climate change to the movements
of pirate ships. A laudable aim of Starlink
is to bring internet access to communities
that wouldn’t otherwise have it.But the attitude of many companies
and institutions involved seems to be a
laissez-faire assurance we can continue
pumping as much stuff into orbit as we
like with no consequences. Warnings
from scientists about the repercussions
have been met largely with indifference.
Those warnings come in two forms.First, for astronomy, as our clear view
of the night sky becomes impeded by
thousands of tonnes of often highly
reflective space metal. Second, for the
satellites themselves and potentially
for human life and limb, due to the
increasing amounts of space junk(discarded satellites and bits that have
fallen off) careering around.
On that second point – the parallels
with climate change continue to
reverberate – we may already be too
late to stop bad things happening.
Minor perturbations in orbits that
could lead to major collisions build
up only slowly, and may already have
begun. A further irony is that a warming
planet might exacerbate the problem by
reducing the drag on satellites, keeping
them in orbit for longer (see page 42).
Solving the problem means taking a
leaf out of the COP book. The world needs
to take space junk seriously and establish
an international mechanism to solve the
problem in the interests of all the parties
involved – and in a more timely manner
than we ever did with climate change. ❚Save our skies
Space junk requires a response like climate change – only quicker
“ So far, the attitude has been that
we can pump as much as we like
into orbit with no consequences”Chief executive Nina Wright
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