WEBVTT - Space and Junk 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.240 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:15.400 Forward Thinking. Hey there everyone, Welcome to Forward Thinking, the 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:17.919 podcast that looks at the future and says now it's 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:20.959 time to leave the capsule if you dare. I'm Jonathan Strickland, 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:23.640 I'm Lauren Vocal, and I'm Joe McCormick. And today we're 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:27.800 gonna talk about, you know, junk in space, space junk, 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:30.880 space junk, or orbital debris if you prefer, if you 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:34.479 want to be all official about it. So let's talk 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:41.159 What is space junk? What is it? Uh? It's uh, 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:44.920 I'll take the pressure off. Okay, space junk. It's debris 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:47.600 in space. It's stuff that's defunct, it's no longer working. 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:51.120 It is stuff that is accumulated in orbit around Earth 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:53.960 that we can no longer control or use in any 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:58.560 meaningful way. That now is kind of a an issue. 0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:00.200 That's what I was going to say, I was be 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:02.440 it can be any number of things. I mean a 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:04.959 lot lots of different things. Are we we we've put 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:07.080 a lot of junk in space. Yeah, And just to 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:11.319 be clear, we're pretty much going by the NASA approach 0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:14.360 to to defining this. They call it orbital debris usually 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:17.560 and they define it as man made objects. So this 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:20.839 does not include things that would occur out there due 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:23.959 to like asteroids or meteoroids, none of that. We're talking 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:28.199 specifically about man made objects or really pieces of man 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:32.119 made objects that are in orbit around the Earth. And uh, 0:01:32.440 --> 0:01:34.479 there's a lot of different types of it. I mean, 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:38.920 you're talking about everything from defunct spacecraft that were left 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:44.400 up there, spacecraft being anything like staticraft well some cases. 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:46.520 In some cases we're talking about like whole space if 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:48.920 you'd call a satellite spacecraft because it is capable of 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:52.320 moving through space. And yes, you know what's funny is 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:57.480 uh the idea that after a spaceship they stop using it, 0:01:57.480 --> 0:02:00.960 it doesn't just fall now it's days in orbit for 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:04.040 depending on how high altitude it is, it may stay 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:07.000 there for a couple of years or more than a century. 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:09.840 But we'll get into that. So yeah, yeah, it all 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:14.119 depends on the the altitude of the orbit. So first 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:17.480 of all, we're talking about things like defunct satellites, upper 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:20.320 stages of launch vehicles, which early in the early days 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:23.960 of space of the space uh A race, those launch 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:27.440 vehicles would separate in uh an orbit. It wouldn't you 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:30.560 know the more of these days, they usually fall off 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:33.200 into the ocean before they hit orbit. Yeah, they they 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:37.080 usually are at an altitude where their their orbit degrades 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:40.280 so rapidly as to be practically non existent. So yeah, 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:42.799 they and their designed so that they will fall back 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:45.720 to Earth into an ocean, which is you know, that's 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:49.480 pretty much where you're going to hit statistics three times 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:52.920 on a four because of because of how much ocean 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:56.880 is covering the Earth, but also carriers for payloads, So 0:02:57.280 --> 0:03:00.280 just think of that as like a cargo truck, like 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:03.080 the truck part and that's kind of left up there. 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:07.000 The debris created as a result of different collisions and explosions. 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:10.280 Some of those collisions were on purpose, some of them 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:12.800 were accidental. I'll talk about the on purpose ones in 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:17.400 a minute. Solid rocket motor effluence. So solid rockets use 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:20.160 solid rocket fuel and sometimes they don't burn it all up, 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:22.960 and sometimes bits of that solid rocket fuel will end 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:27.079 up being exposed to space and become this space debris 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:31.600 that's flying around. Um debris that was intentionally released during 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:35.560 spacecraft launch or vehicle release. So this might be something 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:38.880 that when you're blowing the seal between one part of 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:41.840 a spacecraft and launch vehicle ends up being ejected out 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:46.360 into space as well. Even tiny specks of paint are 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:50.680 considered space debris. So paint can chip off due to collisions, 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:54.000 whether something is getting hit by tiny little particles, or 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:57.280 even thermal stress. So if it's undergoing lots of different 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:00.280 heating and cooling, sometimes paint chips off, and that ain't 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:04.360 can represent space debris. I've also heard that there's stuff 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:09.200 such as discarded astronaut gloves, spatula's cameras, and crystals of 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:14.880 human p depending upon depending upon your crystals, yeah, depending 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:18.000 upon your your belief in various conspiracy theories. There might 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:22.600 be some cosmonauts floating around up there too. I'm sure 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:28.800 there are just a few chainsaws, you know. I'll never 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:33.400 forget when leather Face went to space. None of those 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:37.560 say that someone will make that, like made Jason in space, 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:39.800 and they made the leprechn in space. I'm waiting for 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:42.760 you don't remember that. Yeah, Canada had the rocket chainsaw 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:46.760 program where they spent several decades just rocketing chainsaws and 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:51.159 powered by maple syrup or powered by rockets by chainsaw 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:54.760 magic chainsall magic, all right, Joe's a little loopie, guys, 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:58.120 So let's talk about some of the more interesting stories. 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:02.279 I think of the events that have led to large 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:06.800 amounts of space debris being spread over the Earth, right 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:09.080 because we I mean a lot of this stuff is accidental, 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:13.120 but we in the past have created space debris almost 0:05:13.160 --> 0:05:16.440 on purpose. Yeah. It wasn't necessarily because we wanted to well, 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:18.880 definitely wasn't that we wanted to make things more difficult. 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:20.720 We just wanted to try, and we just wanted to 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:23.320 blow stuff up. It's yeah, I guess it's kind of 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:28.360 like littering. It's easy. It wasn't easy. It was rocket 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:31.280 science actually, So in the nineteen sixties and seventies there 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:34.480 was this little thing going on full speed. By then 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:36.760 it had been in development for years. It's called the 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:39.280 Cold War. Do you guys remember that? Actually I do 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:42.080 remember that, you guys wouldn't. And so I saw some 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:45.280 James Bond movies and the third Rambo movie. I think 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:47.560 I got it. Okay, all right, you've got a good grounding. 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:49.560 So the Cold War between the United States and the 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:52.800 Soviet Union, the former Soviet Union. Uh, that was what 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:54.800 a lot of the space race was about, was who 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:59.280 can who can dominate space? First, it was really who 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:02.480 can launch things powerful enough to get into space? And 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:06.560 therefore probably also at your nation, well, especially the early 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:10.039 days where the launching of satellites really meant, hey, look 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:12.279 how far we can shoot this thing. We could probably 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:14.360 hit you as well, because if you look at those 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:18.240 early satellites like Sputnik, the original Sputnik, uh, the technical 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:22.080 sophistication of that was that it could go beep frequently, 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:24.920 that was it. Well, but it could go beep frequently 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:28.400 and and and loud enough for various people with ham 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:31.479 radios to pick it, and therefore you know, it was 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:33.679 proven right. It was one of those things that scared 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:35.960 people because it said, oh, look how far they can shoot. Well, 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:38.599 the space debried kind of comes out of that same 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:42.360 thought process. The idea was to develop missile systems that 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:45.520 had anti satellite capability so that you could shoot down 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:47.720 your enemy satellites because that was another fear was that 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:50.400 if they can put something up there, they can spy 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:52.120 on us. And if they're going to spy on us, 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:54.000 and that's bad, we need a way of taking care 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:56.880 of that and wiping out those spy satellites. And so 0:06:56.920 --> 0:06:59.320 there were tests both in the United States and the 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:03.240 uss A are where they would launch these anti satellite 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:06.320 missiles that would collide with satellites and then blow up 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:08.560 and then cause a lot of space debris, both from 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:12.840 the missile and from the satellite that was the target practice. Yeah. 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:17.000 Uh that, by the way, not not. We didn't just 0:07:17.120 --> 0:07:18.880 leave that off in the sixties and seventies. By we 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:21.440 I'm talking about humans in general, not the three of us. No, 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:24.040 not the three We have never as to my knowledge, 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:26.520 none of us, and I'm gonna even include Noel. I'm 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:28.560 gonna be generous and include Noel or Producer in this. 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:31.560 None of us, to my knowledge, has ever shot an 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:35.280 anti satellite missile at a satellite and cause more space 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:37.920 to b I can neither confirm nor deny. Moving on 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:42.360 before we put on more lists. In nine the US 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:46.040 changed its official policy to minimize the creation of new 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:49.960 orbital debris, saying that this is that was That was 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:52.240 after we kind of realized that that this was becoming 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:54.640 an issue. The fact that it wasn't just like, oh, 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:57.040 it's harmless. Space is really big, most of it will 0:07:57.040 --> 0:07:59.440 fall down anyway, it's to it's fine. Yeah, yeah, this 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:01.840 was when they they realized that, no, we're starting to 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:05.720 clutter up some very valuable regions of space, not the 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:09.040 not what I think most people would call the most valuable. 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:12.240 We'll get into that the most valuable space real estate 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:16.960 around the Earth is is relatively safe from space debris, 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:21.280 which is a good thing. But on June third, there 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:25.480 was an explosion of Pegasus. Hydrazine auxiliary propulsion system exploded, 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:29.960 and at that time it became the worst space debris 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:34.000 incident in history because the altitude and orbit of that 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:37.240 particular satellite, it presented a potential threat to both the 0:08:37.280 --> 0:08:41.400 Hubble Space Telescope and two Space Shuttle crews, which prompted 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:43.760 NASA to really study the effects of space debris on 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:47.120 potential operations with greater urgency. Specifically, they wanted to look 0:08:47.160 --> 0:08:50.559 at how could this affects, say an astronaut it's on 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:53.679 a space walk, and how do we mitigate this, How 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:58.040 do we plan so that we minimize any threat that 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:03.080 these astronauts would undergo in this kind of situation. Um 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:05.600 And then before two thousand seven, according to NASA, the 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:08.280 principal source of debris was from explosions of old launch 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:11.880 vehicle upper stages. Left in orbit with stored energy sources 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:15.280 such as residual propellants and high pressure fluids. But on 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:19.240 January eleven seven, China caught up with the US and 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:21.880 the USSR by firing a missile at the thing Young 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:25.719 one Sea weather satellite. So this was another test of 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:28.320 an anti satellite missile system. I remember when this happened. 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:32.199 I remember hearing about in the news, um and uh, Well, 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:35.960 from their perspective, it worked. They they the missile collia 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:39.280 with the satellite and went boom. But it also means 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:42.720 that it created what Encyclopedia Britannica calls the worst space 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:46.080 debris event at that time that has since been surpassed. 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:49.440 You'll be happy to know, I'm sure, um, but it 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:53.079 created more than three thousand fragments and the mass of 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:55.120 the particles was spread out over the course of two 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:58.080 years to create a cloud of debris that encircles the Earth. 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:01.640 So you can actually look at some great images online 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:05.080 that will show you the specific pathway. It's like, it's like, 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:09.280 imagine one line of orbit around the Earth just cluttered 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:12.199 with debris, and that's just from this one satellite. Now 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:17.320 imagine that with lots of other degrees so that you 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:20.400 have all these other rings encircling the Earth at different 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:24.280 points some in some cases they criss cross with each other. Uh, 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:26.360 and you can start to see the problem that if 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:29.120 you want to put anything within these orbits, this this 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:32.720 range of altitude, you're going to encounter big clouds of 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:36.280 space debris, or potentially you'll encounter them. Keeping in mind, 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:39.040 even at that altitude, space is big there. It's not 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:41.960 like you're guaranteed to get hit, but you are certainly 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:45.760 um more prone to getting hit by space debris. And 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:48.800 if you're hit by space debris, here's the really bad news. 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:51.720 You create more space debris, all right. And and and 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:53.680 also I mean that space debris, even if it's a 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:57.679 it's a fleck of painter crystal of p that crystal 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:00.840 is moving at thousands of pometer. It's an hour which 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:02.520 we're going to get into in a moment um. I 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:05.360 think there were a couple more notes on the Yeah. 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:07.439 Two thousand nine, Yeah, we're not done with the happy 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:10.040 stories yet. Two thousand nine that's when an American and 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:14.200 a Russian communication satellite collided. Uh. The Russian satellite was defunct. 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:16.720 The American one at that time was not It was 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:22.280 afterwards UM, and that ended up being a massive collision 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:26.480 that now, according to NASA, the results of that collision 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:30.480 account for one third of all cataloged space debris, so 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:33.560 not necessarily all space debris ever, but all the stuff 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:36.560 that NASA has cataloged, one third of it comes from 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:41.000 this collision. On January teen, a piece from that fing 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:44.160 Young one Sea satellite that the Chinese shot with the missile. 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:47.719 One piece of that collided with a Russian b l 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:51.640 I T s Blitz satellite, which was this really cool 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:55.600 kind of it's think of a sphere, a mirrored sphere 0:11:56.280 --> 0:11:59.440 in space, and it changed the orbit and spin period, 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:02.720 actually broke it into at least two pieces. And the 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:05.240 purpose of that satellite was to test a retro reflector 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:08.760 design and act as a laser ranging device, and now 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:12.199 it it don't work no more. So that's just an 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:15.559 overview of some of the events that have created this 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:20.120 massive cloud of space debris UM, which kind of guess 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:22.400 leads to the question of how massive are we talking about? 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:26.319 And and it's it's bad news if you're if you're 0:12:26.360 --> 0:12:30.840 looking at objects that are larger than ten centimeters. NASA 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:34.400 says they're about twenty one thousand pieces out there. That 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:36.480 sounds like a whole lot. But then again, the Earth 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:39.800 is pretty big. Yeah. Yeah, of course, if you if 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:43.800 you were to look at objects between one to ten centimeters, 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:46.720 so ten centimeters are are larger, that's twenty one pieces. 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:49.600 If you look between one and ten centimeters, you're talking 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:54.079 more about half a million, five hundred thousand pieces flying around. Uh. 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:57.640 If you go down to less than one centimeter, then 0:12:57.679 --> 0:13:00.760 you're getting into huge numbers. Uh. And even the tiniest 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:03.559 particles are problem now. Granted, a lot of the spacecraft, 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:06.120 in fact, the spacecraft that is being designed today has 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:09.880 shielding as part of the spacecraft for just for these 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:14.840 kind of um, these possible collisions, So most of them 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:18.120 have shielding that will protect them from collisions of things 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:21.240 up to about three or four centimeters in size. But 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:24.320 that's where we get into some of the problems with 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:27.920 you know, even if it's small, it's still a huge issue, right. 0:13:27.960 --> 0:13:29.800 I mean, first of all, I want to say that 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:33.319 I think it's amazing that NASA can apparently identify and 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:38.040 track objects as small as three millimeters from ground radar 0:13:38.160 --> 0:13:45.520 stations in space. That's idea. I had no idea until 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:47.800 I started researching this. I mean, that's an incredible level 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:50.040 of precision, you know, considering that I can't find my 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:52.160 keys in my own room. That's I'm going to go 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:55.840 ahead and say that I can't find when I'm wearing them. Okay, 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:59.319 So you mentioned earlier about how even a little paint 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:03.520 chip to cause a problem. Well that's kind of hard 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:07.800 to imagine because these things are built really strong, and 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:10.440 if you just stand next to them throwing a paint 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:12.600 chip at them, or even i'd say like a baseball 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:14.720 or something, it doesn't seem like you can do very 0:14:14.800 --> 0:14:18.640 much damage. Yeah, well you can see that. Here's where, 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:22.520 um some Newtonian physics comes in. Um let's let's talk 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:25.560 about momentum for a second. Well, actually, I think what 0:14:25.640 --> 0:14:28.480 we want to talk about it's similar, is kinetic energy. Sure, 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:32.520 kinetic energy is uh the four seat you get when 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:37.040 it's the the ability of something moving do work. Um So, 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:40.200 the kinetic energy of an object, say, flying through space, 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:44.880 is one half mass times velocity square. Alright, no velocity 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:49.920 is speed plus a direction. Yeah okay, so uh m okay, 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:53.600 well the you know, a paint chip, what's the mass there? 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:56.080 It's gonna be really small. But when you look at 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:59.240 the speed, so speeds, we're talking about debris traveling at 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:03.560 around seven or eight kilometers every second. And and furthermore, 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:05.840 when if you know, for example, they're traveling in opposite 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:08.440 directions like that, um that two thousand nine American and 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:14.120 Russian communications satellite collision happened at some kilometers per hour. Yeah, 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:16.440 so at that speed, when you get when you get 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:18.840 a lot of speed, it doesn't know the mass of 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:21.880 the object is I mean, obviously it's important because it's 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:25.240 going to be a factor in that equation, But even 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:28.800 a small particle has the potential to do huge amounts 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:33.640 of catastrophic damage. So yeah, you're talking. When you're talking 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:36.560 at those speeds, there's no such thing as oh, well 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:39.720 that's that's that's tiny. Well, I mean yeah, I mean 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:43.200 if you extract, if you go beyond Newtonian physics and 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:45.840 get close to relativistic speeds where you're talking about a 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:47.920 paint chip going near the speed of light, that paint 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:52.320 chip turns into a nuclear bomb. Yeah. And while well 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:56.359 that paint chip might not do any damage against say, spacecraft, 0:15:56.440 --> 0:15:59.320 because of spacecraft has some uh some shielding on it 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:02.840 that will protect against those small particle collisions. If it's 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:07.960 an incredibly unlucky astronaut on a spacewalk, it has the 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:10.320 potential of doing at least some damage to the space suit, 0:16:10.400 --> 0:16:14.680 which could be catastrophic for the astronaut inside. Uh So, Yeah, 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:18.200 it's moving around these incredible speeds, and when you've got 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:21.200 that that level of momentum in the equation, you have 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:25.040 to be cognizant of it um. As for where all 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:29.280 this stuff is, most of it is in uh an 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:32.600 altitude that's within two thousand kilometers of the Earth's surface, 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:35.240 which sounds, you know, pretty pretty big. In fact, a 0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:38.360 lot of it um is between seven fifty and eight 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:41.640 d kilometers above the surface of the Earth, and debris 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:44.440 below six entred kilometers altitude will end up falling to 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:46.000 the Earth within a few years. You remember when I 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:49.560 said it might take more than a century. Well above 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:51.880 a thousand kilometers, that's where you're running into it, where 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:55.040 the it's going to take at least a century, possibly more, 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:57.960 for the orbit to decay enough for that object to 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:01.240 start to fall to the Earth. Keeping in mind in 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:04.560 orbit is essentially just a sustained fall. Anyway, you're falling 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:08.919 at a speed turning motion. Yeah. Yeah, you're falling towards 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:10.760 the Earth at the same you know, at a rate 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:14.040 that's comparable to the rotation of the Earth. So and 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:16.479 you're falling at an angle where it's like you're just 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:21.720 in constant freefall. Um. So that's that's a real problem 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:24.760 for any spacecraft that needs to be in that in 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:27.399 that range. Not all spacecraft do need to be in 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:30.640 that range. Things that are in geostationary orbit are much 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:34.600 higher up because that's something like thirty five point seven 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:41.199 and in that range there's really not that much space debris. 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:45.440 And most operators who have some sort of spacecraft up 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:48.879 in that range, you know, we're talking about like telecommunication satellites, 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:51.840 that sort of stuff that needs to be in geostationary orbit. 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:55.879 That's where we've got this uh satellite that's above a 0:17:56.200 --> 0:18:00.120 kind of a fixed point along the equator of the Earth. Um. 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:03.280 It's very valuable real estate, like they consider it a 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:06.840 natural resource. That's very important. So operators who are working 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:09.639 on spacecraft that is about to go to the end 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:11.960 of its life, you know, at the end of its life, 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:14.679 instead of just leaving it there, they will usually boost 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:17.159 it out of that orbit, you know, which takes a 0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:19.000 lot of energy, but it does mean that you free 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:22.440 up that space for something else to take up because 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:24.800 there's only a limited number of spaces in that in 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:28.199 that orbit that you can use. So this way you 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:31.760 end up conserving that by allowing someone else to take 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:35.280 the space that that satellite used to be in. But 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:38.240 which is why that's one good thing. Like if we 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:40.960 were to talk about a massive problem with space debris, 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:44.320 we probably wouldn't see a huge impact on things like 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:47.160 weather satellites and communication satellites because they tend to be 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:49.639 at altitudes higher than where a lot of the space 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:52.560 debris is. So that's some good news, but there are 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:55.159 a lot of other satellites that would be affected, not 0:18:55.240 --> 0:18:58.280 to mention any kind of operations for things like the 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:02.240 Hubble Space telescope, other space these telescopes. Also just getting 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:05.560 things into space would eventually start becoming a problem. Sure 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:08.639 getting past this kind of you know, field of junk. 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:14.720 I think of that not entirely scientifically accurate scene in 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:17.639 Wally where they're trying to escape the Earth they have 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:20.320 to like bust through. I think it's fair to say 0:19:20.359 --> 0:19:25.399 that's not entirely scientifically accurate. But yes, so you know 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:28.080 the but it is true that real estate up there 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:30.720 is limited. Yeah, I mean, and you you could run 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:33.920 out of space in space, and long before you ran 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:36.280 out of space, you'd probably run out of space that 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:39.320 it was safe to use simultaneously or even just like 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:42.000 you were saying, Lauren, or just just flying to get 0:19:42.160 --> 0:19:44.440 like even if you're going beyond that point, you still 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:47.200 have to get through that section. Uh. And yeah, as 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:51.480 I said these, the amount of space debris increases over 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:54.400 time even if you don't shoot anything else up there, 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:57.720 because anything that's up there now, eventually it's going to 0:19:57.760 --> 0:20:00.359 collide with something else. It's really just a matter of time, 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:03.440 assuming that you don't have it, uh come back down 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:06.840 to Earth. Eventually it's going to collide with something, which 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:10.520 means that it creates more space debris. So uh, even 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:13.760 if we halted all space operations right now and never 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:17.000 send anything else up we would see space debris increase 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:21.760 over time, at least until a dozen years century or so. 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:23.680 You know, once you get through a century, then you'd 0:20:23.680 --> 0:20:30.080 probably end up having significantly um. Now. Uh. The reason 0:20:30.160 --> 0:20:32.120 why I thought it would be interesting to talk about 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:36.280 this right now is because you know, a few weeks 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:39.520 back a movie called Gravity came out and I went 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:42.000 and saw this movie. Have either of you seen it? Nope, No, 0:20:42.080 --> 0:20:44.720 I really wanted to. It's it's it's a fantastic film. 0:20:44.800 --> 0:20:48.640 It's um I've got problems with it there. There are 0:20:48.720 --> 0:20:53.600 some problems with its physics. But it's a fun, highly 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:56.720 stressful film. So if you don't deal with stress very well, 0:20:56.720 --> 0:20:58.680 then I don't necessarily say that you should go out 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:01.520 and see it. Uh. I certainly wanted to see it 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:05.199 because I yearn for films that get the h I 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:06.879 say this like I've been to space. I haven't been 0:21:06.920 --> 0:21:09.920 to space, but I say get the terror of space right, 0:21:10.240 --> 0:21:13.080 at least as I would imagine it. I mean, just 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:17.359 knowing what you know about how empty and huge and 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:21.760 all inspiring and inspiring and horrifying at the same time. 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:26.119 Space is. So many movies make it so mundane. Space 0:21:26.240 --> 0:21:31.360 is a sound stage spaces Space is just the bit 0:21:31.440 --> 0:21:33.440 you go through to get from point A to point B, 0:21:33.880 --> 0:21:36.560 and and not really anything to consider beyond that. But 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:38.080 if you were to think of it in the terms 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:41.920 of you, you are in a self contained environment within 0:21:41.960 --> 0:21:45.720 the space suit that you cannot get out of because 0:21:45.720 --> 0:21:47.919 if you did, you would die as space, as we 0:21:47.960 --> 0:21:50.919 have said many times, is trying to kill you. Um 0:21:50.960 --> 0:21:54.040 and you were to become separated from your spacecraft with 0:21:54.160 --> 0:21:58.240 no actual means of propelling yourself back toward it, that 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:00.320 I can't you know, you would just imagine you would 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:04.920 have a rapidly escalating panic attack, leading possibly to despair 0:22:04.960 --> 0:22:07.800 if you didn't pass out from the stress of it all. 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:11.280 And that's kind of what they are depicting in the 0:22:11.320 --> 0:22:16.520 film Gravity and and Gravity. You've got a ludicrously underprepared 0:22:16.560 --> 0:22:21.240 astronaut who is working on the Hubble space telescope when 0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:26.440 there is a catastrophic impact with space debris caused by 0:22:26.840 --> 0:22:30.159 Russians firing a missile at a satellite. So this is 0:22:30.200 --> 0:22:32.960