Space junk is already causing a lot of problems in orbit. Even according to experts, space debris can keep humans trapped on Earth forever.
Lisa Ruth Rand, a technology historian at Caltech, said the accumulating space debris would make Elon Musk's and other space agencies' dreams of building life on other planets even more difficult to realize.
"That means we basically shut ourselves out of the cosmos," Rand said, as quoted by Inverse.
"That the end of the space age is not humans becoming cosmopolitan, becoming multi-planetary, becoming part of the universe, but rather making us unable to go anymore," he added.
This is the effect of a condition called Kessler Syndrome. This syndrome is a form of chain reaction that occurs after a satellite or other spacecraft is hit by space debris, which then becomes new space junk and crashes into other satellites, and so on.
Incidents like this have happened several times and even endangered human lives. For example, when the space station (ISS) almost crashed into the space junk created when Russia tested an anti-satellite missile to blow up an old satellite.
As a result, some of the ISS crew had to take shelter in the Crew Dragon and Soyuz capsules as a precaution if they had to leave the space station.
Recently, the Chinese space station also nearly collided with SpaceX's Starlink internet satellite. In the incident, China even submitted a formal complaint to the United Nations.
The problem of space debris is getting worse. There are currently 40,000 space objects tracked by space organizations such as the U.S. Space Command, of which 5,000 are active satellites and the rest are trash.
They also vary in size, from as small as a marble to intact satellites that don't work. But even small objects can be dangerous in space because of their very fast movement, reaching 28,000 km / h and even more.
Because of this threat, launching a space mission becomes something dangerous. The danger that lurks is even greater if there is a human crew controlling the starship.
Fortunately, several programs have been launched to tackle the space junk problem. Like the mission Astroscale launched in March 2021 to show how magnetic technology can help collect space debris.
