2023-11-14 18:00:00
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If human waste has reached the Mariana Trench, which is the deepest point in the ocean, why couldn’t it have reached space? Yes, even in the darkness of the “void”, we can come across traces of our bad habit as a species: up there there are objects forgotten, lost or left by man intentionallyfrom cables and satellites to cameras.
Video: Spectacular photographs of space
In September 2023, the International Space Station (ISS) updated a rather curious, as well as worrying, figure: surveillance networks cataloged at least 35,290 waste prowling around the Earth, whose combined weight amounted to 11,000 tons. What is commonly called “space junk.”
Now, one more object will be added to the registry because, on November 1, astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara lost a tool bag in a vacuum, during his first spacewalk. This happened within the framework of the Expedition 70 from NASAafter both successfully completed repair work contemplated in the mission objectives.
Expedition 70 can continue after the loss
Seven astronauts are currently on the International Space Station aboard Expedition 70, which started on September 27 and whose mission is to study a series of microgravity phenomena – for example, the body’s reaction to space flight – to benefit humans on and off Earth. In addition, the trip is being used to perform maintenance tasks on the Columbus Laboratory and other modules of the ISS.
NASA
Portrait of the astronauts: on the left, Loral O’Hara; on the right, Jasmin Moghbeli.
Moghbeli and O’Hara left the base, dressed in their suits, in order to repair a piece of the Station’s solar panels. The task occupied them almost seven hours and, upon returning, the flight controllers detected, through external cameras, that they had left the tool bag outside.
Luckily, NASA reported that the lost item would not be necessary in the remainder of the expedition, so the error has not required additional efforts. Of course, the mission control room decided follow the trajectory of the stock market to avoid a possible impact with the ISS: “the risk of contacting the station again is low and the crew on board and the space station are safe without the need to take any action,” explains NASA in its official blog.
A possible solution against space debris
Now, it is expected that in the coming months The lost bag orbits the lower part of the Earthplace where satellites that have reached the end of their useful life or many others accumulate useless parts of the space industry and telecommunications. An ending that puts the spotlight back on the Kessler syndrome: the theory that exposes the possibility of a chain reaction due to the fragment collision of space debris, which could mean the destruction of all the artificial satellites orbiting our planet.
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