Space debris: the dark side of the satellite era

Abstract

Space debris includes any artificial object that is no longer functional in orbit around the Earth. It ranges from upper stages of rockets and decommissioned satellites, to bolts, fragmented solar panels, paint chips and even instruments lost during spacewalks. Each piece of debris, no matter how small, travels at speeds of over 27,000 km/h. At these speeds, an object of just a few millimetres in size can cause catastrophic damage to a satellite. Several international agencies and organisations, including ESA, NASA, JAXA and CNES, are working to monitor, prevent and mitigate the impact of space debris.