Man has barely been there for 65 years, but space is already a garbage can. Rocket parts, old inactive satellites, bits of metal … These are millions of inert objects wandering in orbit, representing more than 9,600 tonnes of waste moving at thousands of km / h. And the risk of collision with some 2,600 satellites in service is only increasing. What cause concern when Russia destroyed its old Cosmos 1408 satellite with a missile on Monday, November 15. And at the same time scattered 1,500 new debris, forcing the ISS astronauts to take shelter from a potential collision.
In response, the West strongly condemned the Russians. Washington, first of all, accuses Moscow of “irresponsible and destabilizing action”. But also Paris, through the voice of its Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly. “Space raiders have an overwhelming responsibility in generating debris that pollutes and puts our astronauts and satellites in danger”, she tweeted.
But this strong reaction should not obscure the shared responsibility for space pollution. According to an estimate made by The Satellite Encyclopedia, using specialized data from the SpaceTrack service, the Russians are responsible for 36% of the waste that gravitates around the Earth. But the United States follows (33%), ahead of China (24%). France does not exceed 3.3% of the total, with all the same 512 inert objects identified.
These debris, which are the consequence of spacecraft explosions, collisions or some destruction by missile, are not all created equal. The European Space Agency has made its estimates (in English) : 36,500 objects larger than 10 cm, a million pieces between 1 and 10 cm, and no less than 330 million particles measuring between 1 mm and 1 cm. The smallest fragments are all the more dangerous as they are difficult to trace, whereas they are sufficient to damage, for example, the solar panels of a satellite which is still in service.
And the more satellites we send into space, the more the risk of collision increases. On July 24, 1996, already, an old fragment of an Ariane rocket struck the French satellite Cerise at no less than … 50,000 km / h. The remains of Cerise are still there. In 2009, a disabled Russian satellite collided with another American aircraft, generating thousands of new debris, and again increasing the risk of future collisions: this is what specialists call the syndrome of Kessler. Since 1957 and the first satellite, the number of space debris has thus increased exponentially, as this modeling carried out by Stuart Gray, a researcher at University College London, makes it possible to visualize it.
Chance of the calendar, three days before the Russian anti-satellite firing, the Paris Peace Forum was held. Several satellite operators, space agencies and universities are committed to reducing the number of debris in Earth orbit. “By launching the ‘Net Zero Space’ initiative, we call for a global commitment to achieve a sustainable use of outer space for the benefit of all humanity by 2030,” they declared. At the same time, Elon Musk, the boss of SpaceX, plans to launch 12,000 Starlink satellites by 2025. With a target of 42,000 in the long term.