“Wild West” in orbit. Humanity is increasingly polluting the universe with space debris

The source of space junk is essentially everything that humanity takes into space. Typical examples are disused satellites, launch rockets, exploded engine parts, and satellite removal weapons that scatter space debris into various space altitudes and orbits. Space junk then lives a life of its own.

“The biggest problem is the debris in low orbit, where humanity has been focusing its attention in recent years. We are observing the biggest change in the volume of material there in the last ten to 15 years,” said Josef Sebera from the Astronomical Institute (ASÚ) of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

In the past, the biggest polluters were the military-scientific sectors of the great powers, today even private companies are getting into space.

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“As a society, we are unable to respond to space debris, and space law from the Cold War era is no longer sufficient. The problem is that even private companies are launching objects into space, and finding a global agreement is not easy. The European Union is preparing a new space law, but it only regulates entities operating in Europe,” said Sebera, adding that the solution will consist in the active removal of space debris.

According to Pavel Suchan from ASÚ of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, humanity is at the beginning of the end of looking at the sky as it was known. “Now we can see up to 3,000 stars with the naked eye. If we broadcast as many satellites as possible, and there may be up to 50,000 or 100,000 of them in a few years, more satellites than stars will be visible,” pointed out Suchan.

Space junk also has an impact on safety, as there is a greater risk of collisions with technology satellites in orbit providing weather forecasting, navigation or rescue system support. Suchan compared the situation in orbit to the Wild West. According to him, the solution has two levels, legal and technological.

“From the point of view of a professional astronomer, there is a lot of pollution around the universe. It complicates our work and the operation of satellites in orbit. It also causes radio and light pollution. For example, something shines into our observations that shouldn’t be there,” added Soňa Ehlerová from ASÚ AV CR, who is the representative of the Czech Republic on the Council of the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

Ehler said that the conditions for astronomy will continue to deteriorate. “It would help us if satellites in orbits were invisible to the eye. It will not destroy our images of the sky,” the astronomer described.

Since space law is almost non-existent, astronomers have tried to reach some kind of agreement with private companies directly. For example, billionaire Elon Musk’s company SpaceX is trying to launch satellites more gently.

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