The Risk of Space Debris

How often is it that we are shooting images, only to discover a satellite trail through the image? It’s annoying when you see that but it’s the new reality of doing astronomy in this day and age.

Since 1957, we have been filling space with debris. In fact, we are clogging the Earth’s orbit and even having to deal with more collision avoidance scenarios than ever. The business of tracking space debris is vital for the long-term health of space and Earth.

Anytime there is a risk of space debris entering the Earth’s atmosphere, airspace needs to be closely monitored. And while the chances of being personally impacted are less than one in a trillion, the threat still exists.

Companies today are using space collision avoidance systems by employing third parties that handle the debris monitoring. Space is serious business and keeping it inline is vital to the future of the planet too.

Sometimes a big killer piece of space debris will cruise our way. The danger they pose is a calculated risk but today with things like ATLAS monitoring deep space for impactor sized debris, we are somewhat safer. The 15 kilometer-wide pieces of space debris that wiped out the dinosaurs could certainly happen to us, but at least we will have some advance notice.

ATLAS stands for Asteroid Terrestrial impact Last Alert System. It is a NASA funded project that uses a network of telescopes to scan for potentially hazardous asteroids. ATLAS is our early warning system for space issues and is essentially first-generation response. We need these systems today to stay safe.

Now in terms of dealing with debris trails or satellite tracks in our images, many post processing software packages now have AI algorithms that facilitate removal. In fact, it would be very challenging to do astrophotography today the way we did it 40 years ago with all the junk in space. We can quickly average this out of the image. Yet space is packed full of debris.

Generations ahead will have a real challenge ensuring the safety of not only our air space but also our orbital space, as well as monitoring the incoming asteroid sized pieces of debris that somehow float on in and zoom by us without hitting the Earth. The risk is real.