Space debris risks increasing
NOV 26, 2009
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.023875
washingtonpost.com : A growing storm of debris flying around in space is dramatically increasing the risk of orbital crashes, and steps to avoid them will add greatly to the costs of future spaceflight, UK space experts say.Their study predicts that near misses between debris and spacecraft in orbit will rise by 50% in the next 10 years and by 250% by 2059, to more than 50,000 a week."The time to act is now, before the situation gets too difficult to control,” said Hugh Lewis of the University of Southampton’s school of engineering science, who led the study. “The number of objects in orbit is going to go up, and there will be impacts from that.”
© 2009 American Institute of Physics
