Safeguarding the Sky: The Science and Policy of Space Junk
The eighth annual Science on the Hill event brought together policy leaders and scientists in a panel discussion on our planet’s increasingly crowded orbital environment. Skyrocketing numbers of orbital launches and atmospheric reentries are bringing rapid and perhaps profound changes to the environments of low-Earth orbit and our planet’s upper atmosphere. Thanks in large part to burgeoning plans for satellite “mega constellations,” the global launch industry is on track to loft as many as 50,000 new satellites into orbit by 2030. As low-Earth orbit becomes more crowded, the potential for major problems grows in the heavens and on Earth alike: besides the space-based hazards posed by probable increases in space junk, the proliferation of mega constellations could also interfere with delicate scientific studies of the cosmos and dramatically boost the amount of metallic pollution entering the stratosphere from the fiery reentry of spacecraft and debris.
