U.S. general urges world war on space debris
2010 01 28
By Dan Williams | Reuters.com
World powers must find ways to reduce the amount of debris in orbit, as the collision risk it poses to spacecraft is increasing, the head of the U.S. Strategic Command said on Wednesday.
Air Force General Kevin Chilton, a former astronaut, told an Israeli audience that the United States has catalogued more than 15,000 items such as jettisoned rockets, shuttle detritus, and bits of destroyed satellites currently floating in space.
"The estimation is that these numbers could grow upward of 50,000 in total numbers in the not-too-distant future," he said, adding that this could make low-earth orbit "uninhabitable to man or machine".
The amount of debris has increased exponentially, according to Chilton, due to events like China's 2007 shooting down of a defunct satellite, and last year's collision of an old Russian military satellite and a telecoms satellite owned by Iridium.
In what was widely seen as an effort to achieve parity with China, the United States in 2008 blew up a target satellite using the Aegis missile interceptor. The Aegis is now the backbone of a planned U.S. ballistic shield for Eastern Europe.
Chilton said the increasing clutter raised the spectre of a "cascade" whereby debris causes collisions, which in turn creates more debris.
Chilton said major powers should agree on a "responsible space operation", improve their spacecraft to keep debris to a minimum, and share data on possible risks.
"The U.S. has quite an extensive array of sensors ... but even that is not enough," he said in his address to the Fisher Institute for Air & Space Strategic Studies, near Tel Aviv.
"We need to improve our space surveillance capabilities." But Chilton made clear that, for now, containment was the only option, in the absence of a means of elimination.
"Today, the way we eliminate space debris is we wait for it to come down" and burn up on reentry through the atmosphere, he said.
Chilton, whose responsibilities include ballistic missile defence and cyber warfare as well as space operations, spent three days in Israel, an aide said.
As well as visiting academic forums, he held talks with researchers at Israel's Defence Ministry, an official involved in the visit said, without giving details.
Article from: Reuters.com
Video from: YouTube.com
Image: Source
Related Articles
Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies
India loses Moon satellite links
Who Needs Spy Satellites? Google Earth Pinpoints Where Missile Targeted Taliban
Virgin Goes Galactic With Satellites
North Korea warns of war if 'satellite' is shot down
U.S. And Russian Satellites Collide
Iran launches satellite carrier
Spy Satellite Blast, Caught on Tape (Video)
U.S. may shoot at satellite later Wednesday
Operation Rogue Satellite: The Latest
Atlas 5 Rocket Launches Classified U.S. Satellite
Space debris: evolution in pictures
Latest News from our Front Page
|
"Policy of multiculturalism in Europe has failed"
2013 05 22
The UK is experiencing a deficit of Caucasian people in the regions where the majority of the population is made up of immigrants and ethnic minorities. In the last 10 years more than 620 thousand white Brits left the capital of the UK, where Caucasians are now a minority making up only 45% of London’s population.
The policy of multiculturalism in ... |
Stockholm braced for further rioting by young immigrants
2013 05 21
Main article from FT.com follows below this comment:
Well, all of this is hardly unexpected, since there now is pretty much annual riots in Sweden. Disgruntled immigrants who are burning cars, schools and other buildings is now turning into the norm in Sweden ...as it seems to be throughout the rest of Europe. Stones are flying and you can smell the ... |
Dzhokhar’s boat ‘confession’ the most unbelievable part yet of Boston psyop
2013 05 21
Remember the notes that accompanied the anthrax deliveries right after 9/11? They said things like, “Allah is great!” “Death to Israel,” “Death to America!” and “9-11-01: This is next.”
In other words, THE MUSLIMS DID IT: the same ones who had so handily defeated the world’s greatest military machine on Sept. 11, 2001. And they did it because they hate us ... |
The Mystery of the ’Immaculately Conceived’ Baby Anteater
2013 05 21
[...]Staffers at a zoological conservation center in Greenwich, Conn., are very confused — as are the rest of us — because their female giant anteater, Armani, has managed to conceive a baby, apparently without the presence of a male anteater.
What?
It all started in August, writes Lisa Chamoff for Greenwich Time. Armani, an anteater at the LEO Zoological Conservation Center, ... |
The US Government Might Be the Biggest Hacker in the World
2013 05 21
Cyber crime is big business in the US. It’s used to spy, steal, harass competition, political opponents, or to stage an attack and blamed it on a foreign enemy.
Is the government in on this crime industry? Yes, and in bigger ways than you can imagine…
This trend is enabled domestically by an institutionally corrupt US legal system and a police state ... |
| More News » |
|
|
|
|
