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Orbital debris, or space junk, can drift for many years and is a potential hazard for other satellites. There have been several costly collisions which have resulted in detritus spreading into space. Another potential problem is radio frequency interference. When satellites are too close to each other and transmitting on the same frequency ...
This is leading to a growing risk of collisions between satellites and space junk, and means that new regulations on the use of space are urgently needed. Those are some of the conclusions of the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2022 , which warns that if satellites fail, whether due to natural or human events, the consequences for ...
The UN report notes that “the number of satellites launched into outer space has increased at an exponential rate from 210 in 2013 to 600 in 2019, to 1,200 in 2020, and to 2,470 in 2022.” These recent launches are adding to the congestion in low-Earth orbit.
The EU is entering a space internet race where technology giants are spending billions of dollars on LEO satellite technology to close the global connectivity gaps. Space X’s Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite internet venture, has deployed nearly 2,000 satellites in orbit and has applied for licences to fly more than 40,000 satellites. Their ...
The number of active satellites in space continues to grow rapidly. This expansion has allowed people in remote areas to access the internet; it’s also powered tech innovations like connected cars. Thanks to improved and more numerous Earth observation satellites, we are also able to better monitor and understand our changing climate.
With 358 satellites launched as of April, part of SpaceX’s mission is to boost navigation capabilities and supply the world with space-based internet. While the company operated 22% of the world’s operational satellites as of April, it went on to launch an additional 175 satellites in the span of one month, from August to September 2020.
Over the past six decades, about 11,000 satellites have been launched, of which 7,000 remain in space. But that number could swell to the hundreds of thousands by the end of this decade as private companies like Elon Musk’s Starlink and Amazon join China and other nation states in building mega-constellations in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
The number of satellites launched per year, for example, has grown at a rate of 50%, while launch costs have fallen 10-fold over the last 20 years – with lower costs enabling more launches. The price of data, which is key to connectivity, has also dropped – a trend that is set to continue broadly across different sectors.
In fact, our planet’s orbit is getting crowded, not just by satellites, but by space rubbish as well. Currently, there are about 21,000 orbital debris larger than 10cm. The estimated population of particles between 1 and 10cm in diameter is approximately 500,000. The number of particles smaller than 1 cm exceeds 100 million.
The ChallengeIn the near future, space debris will become a critical challenge for the global community, endangering access to space and the benefits this access brings. In recent years, the close to $400 billion global space economy has experienced a transformation. Declining costs, satellite and launcher size evolutions and the proliferation of related technology has led to a surge in ...