Hi @Brevity Yes. The majority of the junk is by the US and Russia. Remember the cold war and the space race? This is the result of all that. The US does not say other countries should not send satellites or rockets. Correct me if I am wrong. If the US said that, citing junk creation, then I will agree that US has no right to say that and is calling out to the kettle. This is about how to destroy/remove the existing junk without proliferating more junk.
Dear Kamala, @kkrish As always a very well written and informative piece! My students will have a ball knowing about "spacecraft cemetery" and "graveyard orbit" - if they don't know about it already! Despite debris, international non proliferation understanding and what not, I personally think this is such a huge step forward for mankind. You know every time we fly, I do think of all the fuel that is burnt to keep us afloat. Yyet every time we land especially in an ancient places (historical, I mean) and see all the still standing proud architecture, I cannot help but wonder if our life time will be remembered for flight! Look at the distance we have come since the first flight! That said, if we are the smart species that we claim we are, space debris is an issue we need to address before it gets out of hand. Educating the future generations is the key! Thank you for the detailed article and well explained responses to other queries!
Thank you @Srama . Thanks much for your feedback. Am very happy to see you. You have aptly captured the situation. This is evolution. Yes. It would be wonderful if your children could come up with a solution to mitigate the space debris, making it safe for the environment and safe for the lives on Earth and above. Thank you for the compliment. Sincerely appreciate it.
Is sending more satellites and rockets up there to snoop on their imagined and real enemies, and for defence purpose different from testing a technology for defence purpose ending up creating some more debris? I am not saying that what India did was right. Just that US of all nations has no right to call it out. Also USA, China and USSR have done this in past. USA has done this multiple times 2008 being the latest. Anti-satellite weapon - Wikipedia The debris india created was also on the the low earth orbit. So there is hope that the pieces would fall into the atmosphere and burn up over the next few years.
@kkrish Mam @satchitananda Mam, Thanks for the replies. @Brevity , I agree with your views; However, in this situation of who dares wins , on the grounds of propriety, the ultimate losers are the people/life inhabiting this planet. This is the issue now, well life should sort it! its never fair!!!
Hi @Brevity I respect your views and opinions. I can counter your arguments but I have neither the time nor the inclination to take this any further. As I mentioned earlier, I want to stay away from stating my opinions or my stance on policies and getting into a debate. I come here on peaceful terms and want to respect others views even if I disagree with them. Therefore I leave it as yours is the last word on this. If you think US has no right to call out on India, so be it.
I wish you would explain to me how US has a higher moral ground in this issue. I am just trying to understand. I respect you as an senior member and follow several of your useful threads. My intention was not to disrespect you or your opinion Editing to add that I agree with Afresh that it is the ordinary people and other innocent life on this planet who are losing in this race for "development".
Ok. @Brevity. Let me try in a new way to present my original post which contains the answer anyway, if you read it carefully. I am going to tell a story where you and I are going to take on roles. (This is the best I could think of) ************************************** Brevity lives in a small neighborhood which is a group of about five-six homes all lined up on two sides of a compound wall. On one corner or the compound wall is the huge common trash bin. Unfortunately the developer did not think of designing the subdivision to include a children’s play area. So this is how it looks. Not drawn to scale . for illustration purpose only. Brevity and another family are the first occupants. Brevity’s immediate concern was a play area for her children. The only area available is the piece of empty ground is in front of the huge trash container. While taking trash, some would spill on the playground and Brevity cleans up the spills. As the days go by, it turns out that Brevity is the most frequent user of the trash bin, which meant lots of trash and junk on the playground. Also there are other problems such as flies, bugs, and other critters infesting the playground area. Sometimes debris is strewn because of high winds also. In order to keep this under control, Brevity employs a couple who not only clean up the spills, but also employ various methods to keep the play area free from the critters, and also keep an eye on the children for safety. Slowly other families occupy the rest of the homes. None of the occupants have children and their use of the common trash bin is less frequent compared to Brevity’s. Brevity continues to pay for the maintenance of the playground area. Once, an occupant “X” spills litter and during the homeowner’s meeting this incident was discussed, a warning issued, and Brevity continues to pay for maintenance of the play area. All the occupants are aware of this and take every effort to avoid spillage onto the playground. Kkrish is another occupant and one day she takes trash and spills some banana peel and some sticky used oil. When Brevity points it out, kkrish says, “Oh, it will wash away in tonight’s rain, don’t worry”. However, Brevity’s children are to arrive home in another ten minutes and play. They may or may not step on the banana peel and the sticky oil. Taking no chances, Brevity adds this additional task on to her two employees to clean up the banana peel and keep an eye on the children from stepping on the oil spill. Brevity expresses displeasure on Kkrish’s actions. Kkrish’s family members get upset saying, “Brevity used to spill so much trash all these years, Mr. X spilled, but now makes a big deal just because we spilled once.” Trust this paints the picture more clearly. ********************* I also request you to place yourselves in these other shoes and look at the situation objectively. 1. If there was an astronaut from India aboard the ISS, how will you react? 2. If there was an astronaut from India aboard the ISS, and if another country had conducted the test, how will you react? 3. If India was the one maintaining and operating the ISS, and if the US had conducted this test, how will you react? 4. If India was the one maintaining and operating the ISS, and if another country had conducted this test, how would you react? 5. If the US had said that India’s actions has put another India’s most expensive telecommunication satellite in dire danger, how would you react? I do not need an answer.. If your answer satisfies your conscience then that is the correct answer. This will be my final post in this thread and will not comment any more. I end my presence here. Whatever opinion the reader forms, that is final and binding. I am neither for, nor against, any particular viewpoint.
Thanks kkrish for explaining your point. Only issue I see here is the assumption that the area around the bin was clean before someone added to the waste. It has thousands of litter all around it and someone added more. In fact, there is no bin. Bin is one large area and now people are telling that I have put thrash here, here, and here and some more. But please don't add more. Again I am not saying what India did was right irrespective of who might trip and fall on the waste. Just that the one who added all the other waste does not have a moral high ground to criticise it. Risk to ISS due to debris is always there. It gets hit by smaller debris and maneuver around bigger ones. Higher risk to ISS due to this is bad, nationality of astronauts being irrelevant. The increase in risk percentage given by NASA is arbitrary without a baseline figure. I would hope that India did some risk assessment and found increase in risk less/acceptible before the debris falls back to earth. I also think that it learnt from the previous tests conducted by other countries in high earth orbits and hence chose an orbit that would help faster disintegration of debris. Only solution is stricter guidelines for space usage applicable to all nations equally and more open sharing of existing tests, data and findings by USA, Russia etc so that other countries trying to build competence and technology need not make same or more mistakes in similar lines.
This is the truth indeed and master stroke of your arguments. 2. It is clear the first man read country and the last man read indis knew it for sure there act will result in debris filling spaces above the earth and might fall on inhabitants on Earth and therefore it is akin to contrive murder of humanity! 3. OMG ! I WISH GOD put some mechanism to suck all the space debris into moon or sun & watch the effect. Thanks & Regards. God has plan for everything including deluge catastrophe tsunami....space debris.
