{"id":8248,"date":"2017-03-04T00:18:40","date_gmt":"2017-03-04T07:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/BigJimIndustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=8248"},"modified":"2017-03-03T12:22:57","modified_gmt":"2017-03-03T19:22:57","slug":"space-junk-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2017\/03\/04\/space-junk-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"Space Junk Threat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2017-02-27\/earth-s-orbiting-junkyard-threatens-the-space-economy\" target=\"_blank\"><em>from Bloomberg<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<h1>Earth\u2019s Orbiting Junkyard Threatens the Space Economy<\/h1>\n<p><em>Rocket and satellite litter is endangering private space commerce. Enter the cosmic debris tracking industry.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>by Justin Bachman<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.bwbx.io\/images\/users\/iqjWHBFdfxIU\/iJpWPdNYYPjs\/v0\/400x-1.jpg\" width=\"480\" \/><em>A depiction of orbital debris in low-earth orbit. NASA<\/em><\/p>\n<p>You never see it in those lovely NASA pictures of Earth, but the space surrounding our\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/solarsystem.nasa.gov\/galleries\/pale-blue-dot\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-web-url=\"http:\/\/solarsystem.nasa.gov\/galleries\/pale-blue-dot\">pale blue dot<\/a>\u00a0is a cosmic junkyard. Debris abounds, moving at ludicrous speeds and presenting plenty of hassles for satellite operators who do business in orbit.<\/p>\n<p>This pollution poses an existential risk for greater commercialization of space, from the grand ambitions of Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX Corp. and Jeff Bezos\u2019s Blue Origin LLC to other players who see promising futures for an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/atoms\/files\/economic-development-of-low-earth-orbit_tagged_v2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-web-url=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/atoms\/files\/economic-development-of-low-earth-orbit_tagged_v2.pdf\">array of space activities<\/a>, from tourism, to imaging, to pharmaceutical research.<\/p>\n<p>In low-earth orbit, space debris\u00a0travels at velocities approaching 5 miles per second\u2014roughly 18,000 mph\u2014which gives even the tiniest bits of junk\u00a0enormous destructive energy. A 1-centimeter-wide aluminum sphere in low-earth orbit\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aerospace.org\/cords\/space-debris-basics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-web-url=\"http:\/\/www.aerospace.org\/cords\/space-debris-basics\/\">packs the kinetic<\/a>\u00a0equivalent of a safe moving at 60 mph. If it hits your satellite, well, that could ruin the whole day.<\/p>\n<p>Aggregate too much debris in certain areas, and low-earth orbit becomes an increasingly difficult and far costlier environment for commercial companies. Today, satellite operators periodically maneuver their birds to avoid object strikes just as NASA must do with the International Space Station. The key, however, is knowing what\u2019s headed your way.<\/p>\n<p>[ <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2017-02-27\/earth-s-orbiting-junkyard-threatens-the-space-economy\" target=\"_blank\">click to continue reading at Bloomberg<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>from Bloomberg Earth\u2019s Orbiting Junkyard Threatens the Space Economy Rocket and satellite litter is endangering private space commerce. Enter the cosmic debris tracking industry. by Justin Bachman A depiction of orbital debris in low-earth orbit. NASA You never see it in those lovely NASA pictures of Earth, but the space surrounding our\u00a0pale blue dot\u00a0is a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weirdness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8248\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}