ESA's New Documentary Paints Worrying Picture of Earth's Orbital Junk Problem

The European Space Agency's short film Space Debris: Is it a Crisis? highlights the growing danger of orbital clutter, warning that '70% of the 20,000 satellites ever launched remain in space today, orbiting alongside hundreds of millions of fragments left behind by collisions, explosions and intentional destruction.' Inkl reports: The approximately eight-minute-long film 'Space Debris: Is it a Crisis?' attempts to answer its conjecture with supportive statistics and orbital projections. The film also mentions that the kind of Earth orbit matters when discussing whether we're in a space junk 'crisis' -- though unfortunately, orbits at risk appear to be those with satellites that help with communication and navigation, as well as our fight against another primarily human-driven crisis: global warming. Still, the film emphasizes that solutions ought to be thought of carefully: 'True sustainability is complex, and rushed solutions risk creating the problem of burden-shifting.' You can watch the film on ESA's website.

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