ESA launched the world s first space junk cleanup mission, what are the dangers of space junk?

Recently, ESA and Clean Space signed a contract to launch the world's first space junk cleaning satellite, Clean Space One, in 2025. Collisions between satellites can generate an enormous amount of space junk. On February 11, 2009, the U.S. communications satellite Iridium-33 and the Russian satellite Cosmos 2251, which had been scrapped for many years, collided violently over Siberia, causing the first major collision between satellites in human history.

The collision resulted in up to 2,000 large pieces of space junk, as well as many more small pieces of space junk that could not be tracked. The dangers of space junk: If space junk continues to grow uncontrollably, it will trigger the "Kessler effect" - space debris enters a state of cascading impact in space, orbital resources are depleted due to the pollution of space junk, and humans can no longer launch spacecraft into specific orbits.

Space junk can affect human operations in space. If left untreated, space junk can hit space stations, spaceships and satellites, causing damage to these devices.

It will deteriorate the space environment, which is not conducive to everyone exploring space, and it will be difficult for the spacecraft to fly in space, causing great pressure.

Endangering the functioning of satellites. Because space junk is extremely fast and difficult to count, it poses a great threat to satellites that operate normally in the air.

For short-term spaceflight, it is enough to collect garbage and bring it back to the ground; For long-term spaceflight with multiple people, if the garbage is not disposed of, the small sealed cockpit will soon become a garbage bin. There are currently two ways to deal with it, one is to compact the garbage into chunks and launch it from the spacecraft like a cannonball. But instead of launching upwards like a satellite, it is launched downwards and burned up in the atmosphere.

The advantage of this "launch method" is that it is timely, does not increase the weight burden of the spacecraft, and can prevent garbage from rotting and smelling, breeding mold, and polluting the air, but it requires the purchase of necessary equipment. Another way is to accumulate garbage and bring it back to the ground for disposal, which may be called the "piecemeal method". This approach was used by the space stations Salyut and Mir in the former Soviet Union.

Each flight of the Progress's cargo spacecraft brought back more than a ton of garbage. This method has to pay a certain amount of space transportation costs, and it has to solve the problems of anti-corrosion, anti-mildew and environmental pollution when garbage is stored.

Ordinary garbage is piled up in a special garbage dump, whether it is ordinary household garbage or electronic products, there is a corresponding place. But there is some special "garbage" that is very difficult to deal with, and that is space junk, do you know what to do with them in general?

Because there are a lot of abandoned spacecraft or abandoned satellites in space, there will also be a lot of rockets wrapped in empty bushes, and the most Zheng Qing finally turned space into a garbage dump. You can use the device to clean up, or you can learn how to clean it, or you can clean it by exploring.

Because space garbage is difficult to dispose of, many abandoned spacecraft, satellites, etc. have become space junk and are stranded in space. At present, the measures that humans can take are to place space junk in abandoned space locations or to reduce the generation of space junk. Qi Ran Mountain.

Because there is indeed a lot of garbage in space, there are many space probes, there are many satellites that have stopped the chain, and spacecraft that can launch professional auspicious keys to clean up garbage.

Space junk cleanup technologies include: "Space Slingshot", "Cube Solar Sail", "Electric Debris Removal Network", "Electric Tether", "Clean Space One", "Deorbiting Mission" and so on. The details are as follows:

Clean Space One". It is a technology demonstration spacecraft that will then rendezvous with the decommissioned Swiss Cube nanosatellite to remove space debris.

Space Slingshot". In order to save fuel, Texas A&M University proposed that the "Slingshot, Satellite Space Cleaner" can capture space junk, and then throw space junk into the earth's atmosphere to burn, and then use momentum to sail to the next space wreckage target for removal. Researchers are still reviewing the design.

Cube Solar Sail". The United Kingdom has proposed the construction of "cubic solar sails", which would use small artificial satellites to drive solar sails to capture space debris into low orbit. But the plan is still in the works, and it is expected that the manufacturer, Surrey Space Center, will build more small satellites to make it happen.

Space Debris Removal Act". Daniel Gregory of Raytheon BBN Technology in Virginia, USA, proposed a strategy to create "**" in the atmosphere to put the wreckage of artificial satellites into low orbit and burn.

Power Wreckage Elimination Network". Stellar Technologies and Research has proposed the "Electric Debris Elimination Network", a solar-powered mesh structure that could eliminate the wreckage of all large artificial satellites in low-Earth orbit within a decade. It is a network of nanosatellites connected to each other with an electrical conduction tape 3 kilometers long, a massive network that passes through the Earth's magnetic field to generate a voltage that captures space debris and satellite debris.

Electric tether". The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has proposed an "electric tether" strategy to effectively eliminate space debris, with electric tether currents that can slow down satellite debris or space junk. The slowed Sputnik debris will gradually fall to the ground and burn up.

Derailment Mission". Aimed at searching for and removing the wreckage of abandoned artificial satellites in polar orbital regions with orbital altitudes of 800 to 1,000 kilometres, the European Space Agency plans to launch a "space catcher" with a weight of tonnes on a Vega rocket.

Mainly some abandoned satellites, or the remnants of spacecraft, are constantly running in space, affecting the development of space.

Most of the space junk is created by humans, generally some of the spacecraft shed, and some useless artificial satellite remains, which will not disappear and will always exist in the solar system.

Space junk is mainly caused by abandoned satellites. It's because of the huge cost of satellites. Moreover, many countries do not have the ability to have satellites, so that a lot of satellite space junk has been formed.