Currently, there are over 9,000 pieces of “space debris,” mostly fragments from satellite explosions, with a total mass of approximately 5,500 tons orbiting Earth and potentially falling back to the planet at any moment.
This warning comes from scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Scientists believe that the situation will worsen in the coming years.
According to a scientific report from NASA published in the American Journal of Science on January 20, we currently lack the technical and economic means to “clean up” this debris, even if the global aerospace industry were to cease launching new spacecraft.
The reason for this is that the pieces of “debris” in orbit around Earth, particularly many spacecraft fragments at higher altitudes still filled with fuel and high-pressure liquids, continue to collide with one another, breaking apart into smaller pieces.
