Essay on The Ethics Concerning Space Debris

Space exploration has been a hot topic over the past few years. Ideas such as landing humans on mars, the recent flyby of pluto and landing a probe on an asteroid are related to space exploration.This trend is anything that is space related and gives us a better understanding of the universe. This

Space. The final frontier. There are approximately one hundred billion galaxies in the universe with many solar systems in each galaxy and many planets within those solar systems (How do we…). The Milky Way Galaxy is close to 100,000 light years in diameter(Diep) with each light year spanning 5.87849981 x 10^12 miles . In comparison, the earth is only 7,917.5 miles in diameter(Coffey). Within and on the earth itself, there are still great mysteries, and so it comes as no surprise that a giant area such as space holds so much mystery. One of the most recent fascinations to astronomers has been asteroids, meteors, meteorites, and comets. These space rocks are found

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government dedicated to space research and exploration. Since its launch by then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1958, the world has come to owe a great deal to NASA for its advances in human curiosity and discovery. NASA requires research and collaboration on a global level, and employs highly-skilled people from a diverse range of backgrounds, including the military, medicine, and various science and engineering fields. It has been esteemed for decades as a leading authority on space science, making breakthroughs including exploring the geology and meteorology of planets and moons, viewing star clusters and neighboring galaxies, participating in the International Space Station, and providing compelling insight on the Earth’s climate in the face of climate change. Recently, the United States federal budget plan for 2017 has been released that significantly lowers NASA’s funding, and it is very problematic. This cut in spending will halt some of the agency’s finest efforts that will benefit the world in a remarkable way. Upon understanding the great work that NASA has achieved, not only should the government not cut spending on the space agency, but increase spending as one of the smartest investments the country has made.

Space junk is a very important because it can cause harm, not only to NASA, but to Earth and everyone on Earth. Scientists are trying their best to find a way to stop it from doing this, but with people that are as smart as them in one room trying to make a decision is not easy.

Today, the number of satellites to ever launch into space is about 7,500 (Urry, 2014). The number of space debris identified by NASA is over millions of all sizes (“SciTechTalk”). The satellites and particles in the Low Earth Orbit are of greatest concern to scientists because this is where most of the operational satellites orbit around (Jessa, 2011).

Earths atmosphere is constantly bombarded 24 hours a day by outer space. Small objects such bolides and meteors burn up in the Earths atmosphere most often harmlessly. Space dust is continually raining down on Earth from the outer portions of the Solar system as well without notice. The most dangerous and disrupting of all, is the Coronal Mas Ejection or CME.

In the article, “Waste In Space: how NASA is going to add to it Space Station to add to sea of celestial junk,” published on November 19, 2006 by author Jacqui Goddard, scientists are throwing trash into space thinking it’s no big deal. Also, they are putting broken equipment into space instead of bringing it back to earth. Goddard states, “ Nasa has often expressed concern over the growing problem of celestial junk. Earth is ringed by hundreds of thousands of junk items, including old rockets,

To find out where space debris is a problem, we first must understand and know the different orbit that the Earth has. The Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is between 124 to 1240 miles from the surface.4 This area is

In 2009 there was an unfortunate case where a U.S. communications satellite collided with a Russian satellite causing a massive explosion and creating a lot of space debris. Unfortunately space collisions often happen due to the debris in space. In 1980 only 5000 pieces of debris were tracked and scientists did not think this was such an important matter. In 2010 the space debris was over double the amount it was in 1980. There was over 15,000 pieces of debris in orbit which caused scientists to worry. Engineers and scientists came together and decided to build what we call the space fence to detect objects before they can come in contact with satellites. Radars and energy were imperative

Michael A. Michaud stated that Soviet Foreign Minister Edvard Shevardnadze had said in May 1988 that space “pollution” needed to be prevented. He declared that the State Department saw “space debris as an inherently international issue. Nicholas Johnson then provided an overview of the orbital debris technical issues. He reported that only 5 percent of the artificial objects in space are operational spacecraft. In the year prior to his testimony, he stated, seven Soviet spacecraft had undergone high-intensity explosions. Johnson also stated that less than 20 percent of the human-made objects in space were

In recent years, there has been a rise in debate over government spending on space exploration. It is hard to say that the deck is stacked in either way. There is much validity in the arguments from both sides of the gun. In this debate, I believe, the sides are both coming from the perspective of utilitarian ethics. Basically, it is a disagreement on which view’s decision will benefit the most people and cause the least amount of pain. Is it better to look toward the future? Or, is it more important to concentrate on the present? How do you compare pleasures that aren’t certainly known?

@mirikramer. "Incredible Technology: How to Clean Up Dangerous Space Junk." Space.com. N.p., 30 Sept. 2013. Web. 21 Oct.

Space exploration is necessary and huge on helping our world because it could help avoid extinction. One major event that happened in earth's history was the sudden extinction of the dinosaurs by an extremely large asteroid the same fate could happen today causing almost every one and thing to die. NASA is investigating a project called DE-STAR or Directed Energy System for Targeting of Asteroids and exploRation, the experts at the UCSB Experimental Cosmology Group state “DE-STAR is a proposed system to deflect asteroids, comets, and other near-Earth objects (NEO) that pose a credible risk of impact. The objects that cross Earth’s orbit, even relatively small ones, can still have a devastating effect” (par. 1). DE-STAR is a giant laser that can direct a huge amount of light to a redirect or destroy a near earth object such as asteroid or a comet.

Most bodies in the solar system that display a solid surface will show evidence of craters. Many craters are apparent on bodies with no atmosphere such as Mercury or our Moon. Erosion and weathering have removed most of the evidence of craters here on Earth. Most asteroids follow simple circular orbits between Mars and Jupiter and are occasionally agitated by each other or more regularly by Jupiter, however, comets can often come too close to the Earth and other major bodies due to their highly elongated orbits (California Institute of Technology). Over time, every planet or moon has found itself in the wrong place in its orbit at the wrong time and has suffered a major impact. Multitudes of small debris the size of pebbles or grains of sand beat the Earth every day but we are protected by the Earth’s atmosphere. Several times a month small asteroids are spotted passing between Earth and the Moon’s orbit. Very small fragments of asteroids and comets called meteoroids hit the Earth’s atmosphere and explode practically every day causing the bright meteor events we see at night. Over the next 100

Orbital debris is a very dangerous thing. Not only is it creating many problems for scientist, it is also growing every day. A series of photos on a document published by NASA (2009), called The Threat of Orbital Debris and Protecting NASA Space Assets from Satellite Collisions, shows the growth of orbital debris from 1960 to 2009. These images show just how much debris the Cold Wars has generated. Because of this war, the interest in space and space exploration was spread throughout humanity. This spike of interest caused many satellites and rockets to be launched into space and abandoned after they are out of service (Glassman 2009). One of the major contributors to orbital debris is China. In 2007, the Chinese decided to test-launch an anti-satellite missile to destroy a weather satellite of theirs. Their missile