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Concept
Space debris
Summary
Space debris (also known as space junk, space pollution, space waste, space trash, space garbage, or cosmic debris) are defunct human-made objects in space - principally in Earth orbit - which no longer serve a useful function. These include derelict spacecraft - nonfunctional spacecraft and abandoned launch vehicle stages - mission-related debris, and particularly numerous in Earth orbit, fragmentation debris from the breakup of derelict rocket bodies and spacecraft. In addition to derelict human-made objects left in orbit, other examples of space debris include fragments from their disintegration, erosion and collisions or even paint flecks, solidified liquids expelled from spacecraft, and unburned particles from solid rocket motors. Space debris represents a risk to spacecraft.
Space debris is typically a negative externality - it creates an external cost on others from the initial action to launch or use a spacecraft in near-Earth orbit - a cost that is typically not taken into account nor fully accounted for in the cost by the launcher or payload owner.
Several spacecraft, both crewed and uncrewed, have been damaged or destroyed by space debris.
The measurement, mitigation, and potential removal of debris are conducted by some participants in the space industry.
the US Space Surveillance Network reported 25,857 artificial objects in orbit above the Earth, including 5,465 operational satellites. However, these are just the objects large enough to be tracked and in an orbit that makes tracking possible. Satellite debris that is in a Molniya orbit, such as the Kosmos Ono series, might be too high above the northern hemisphere to be tracked. , more than 128 million pieces of debris smaller than , about 900,000 pieces of debris 1–10 cm, and around 34,000 of pieces larger than were estimated to be in orbit around the Earth. When the smallest objects of artificial space debris (paint flecks, solid rocket exhaust particles, etc.) are grouped with micrometeoroids, they are together sometimes referred to by space agencies as MMOD (Micrometeoroid and Orbital Debris).
Official source
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