Three major events over the last three years have hogged prime space in both general and specialist media. The first of this ominous 
threesome was the Chinese anti-satellite test in January 2007 – while the US last February destroyed an ailing spy satellite. More recently two satellites accidentally collided in the Earth orbit. The February 10, 2009 incident was the first of its kind.
All three events generated huge dollops of interest, gossip, paranoia and conspiracy theories – till, for the layman, it became pretty nearly impossible to tell fact from fiction. Only the expert can sift one from the other – and what we learn from him would set any earthling on edge.
Imagine for a second what would happen if a 10 mm piece of debris were to suddenly collide with our Edusat satellites. The threat is so real indeed that on March 11, 2009 crew members had to evacuate the international space station and take shelter in a docked Russian Soyuz space craft due to the threat from space junk. A collision can punch such a large hole in the spacecraft that the crew's very survival is endangered.
Till Russia and China began to take on US might in space, the threat of direct collision between satellites was low. Points out Nicholas Johnson, chief scientist of NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston: “When the year began there were nearly 17,000 pieces of man-made debris orbiting Earth.” But scientists at the American Physical Society conference in Los Angeles estimated their number at over 150 million. The statistics also reveal that nearly 45 per cent of the space debris was produced by the US. “We are in danger of a runaway escalation of this deadly stuff,” warns Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist Geoffrey Forden. But so far no effective way has been found to get rid of it, so that collisions can be prevented. Satellites and spacecraft launchers can only try to minimise the quantity of the debris produced. These killer satellites not only pose a major threat to our space programmes, they threaten mankind’s survival itself. And what in the world will satellites do without people?
threesome was the Chinese anti-satellite test in January 2007 – while the US last February destroyed an ailing spy satellite. More recently two satellites accidentally collided in the Earth orbit. The February 10, 2009 incident was the first of its kind.All three events generated huge dollops of interest, gossip, paranoia and conspiracy theories – till, for the layman, it became pretty nearly impossible to tell fact from fiction. Only the expert can sift one from the other – and what we learn from him would set any earthling on edge.
Imagine for a second what would happen if a 10 mm piece of debris were to suddenly collide with our Edusat satellites. The threat is so real indeed that on March 11, 2009 crew members had to evacuate the international space station and take shelter in a docked Russian Soyuz space craft due to the threat from space junk. A collision can punch such a large hole in the spacecraft that the crew's very survival is endangered.
Till Russia and China began to take on US might in space, the threat of direct collision between satellites was low. Points out Nicholas Johnson, chief scientist of NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston: “When the year began there were nearly 17,000 pieces of man-made debris orbiting Earth.” But scientists at the American Physical Society conference in Los Angeles estimated their number at over 150 million. The statistics also reveal that nearly 45 per cent of the space debris was produced by the US. “We are in danger of a runaway escalation of this deadly stuff,” warns Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist Geoffrey Forden. But so far no effective way has been found to get rid of it, so that collisions can be prevented. Satellites and spacecraft launchers can only try to minimise the quantity of the debris produced. These killer satellites not only pose a major threat to our space programmes, they threaten mankind’s survival itself. And what in the world will satellites do without people?
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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative
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