Alarm on garbage on the universe

The International Year of Astronautics (2011) has just ended, experts in the universe evaluate that the amount of garbage on orbit near Earth has reached an alarming level.

>>>Space waste has doubled in the last 10 years

This is a danger not only for orbiting satellites but also for people on Earth. The main culprits 'pollute' space are Russia, America, China, European Space Agency, France, Japan, India and many other countries .

On orbit near Earth today is more than 16,000 objects of artificial origin. Among these are 3,000 satellites that are or are inactive, more than 12,000 - rocket floors, blocks and debris boosters. The number of smaller sized objects, from 1 - 10cm, according to various estimates, is about 200,000 - 600,000. Smaller types of garbage are thought by experts to reach tens of millions.

The only factor that saves the area near the Earth from the risk of completely becoming a landfill is the debris flying at an altitude of less than 600km, after a while burning in the atmosphere. But in orbit 800km and higher, the objects will remain suspended for several decades. There have been many cases of cosmic debris disabling satellite communication and positioning. ISS International Space Station has to change routes hundreds of times to avoid collisions with derelict cosmic debris.

Freeing space from waste objects is a very urgent issue and is being studied by many countries. The Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) intends to use . fishing nets to clean the universe. The giant nets are proposed to be put on a satellite in orbit. A few kilometer grid launched by special controller, after completing the task, the net automatically removed from the satellite. The debris collected will reach the net into the atmosphere to be completely destroyed.

Ruvr news agency said that up to this time, the means of coping with space waste has not yet been born. The only consolation is that, according to scientists, the statistical probability of debris falling to Earth or colliding space equipment is negligible. With the increasing momentum of human activities in the universe today, the possibility of cosmic garbage falling to Earth is more and more inevitable.