​​What is Kessler syndrome and why we can not fly into space ● Global ecosystems risk collapse by 2030 ● Space travel strongly affects the immune system

What is Kessler syndrome and why we will never be able to walk in space

For the first time, people talked about Kessler’s syndrome in 1978. This was done by NASA researcher Donald Kessler on his behalf. And the scenario he was talking about then involved space debris. More precisely, their density will eventually become so high that they will cause cascading collisions, which will result in even more space debris, making Earth’s orbit inaccessible. At least not without endangering the safety of astronauts.

And Kessler’s scenario is very close to becoming a reality, with more than 100 trillion pieces of debris currently orbiting the Earth, and the number is constantly increasing, threatening even the safety of satellites that are still operational. These are 7,702 active satellites (updated date May 4, 2023).

Not to mention that Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite network, aims to launch and coordinate 42,000 satellites. Currently, Starlink has about 4,000 satellites in low Earth orbit.

The problem is that nothing is being done and cannot be done to clean this place up. Even if objects naturally fall into the atmosphere, it takes time. Very long. China tried to get rid of the satellite with a rocket specially designed to destroy defunct satellites, but it jumped from the lake into a well and generated more waste. The problem was that, aside from the environmental rhetoric, their intention was more to show that they could target a satellite of their choosing, rather than making the orbit cleaner.

Returning to the highly complex mission of orbit cleaning, a British private company says it has created a system to at least be able to dispose of decommissioned satellites. Astroscale is the name of the company, and its offer is presented in the form of two satellites (a 175-kilogram main and a 17-kilogram “client”). The main satellite was tasked with capturing the small satellite using a docking-like system and then launching it into the Earth’s atmosphere where it would burn up. This was Phase 1 of the mission called ELSA – D (from demo) and it was already deployed.

Phase II, called ELSA-M (from multi-client), involves the launch of a whole network of these “sanitary” satellites, which will clean the orbit of space debris and non-working satellites. Sounds good. However, the problem is that these satellites can only safely approach and capture a target if the target is equipped with a pneumatic and magnetic system that allows such an operation. We’re still not at the Star Trek level of having a tractor wave.

So they can only be used in a limited number of cleaning operations for now. Operations that only consider whole satellites, not the debris resulting from their disintegration. Then there will be a legal problem. Who can afford, for example, to touch decommissioned Soviet satellites or already bankrupt companies?

Global ecosystems risk collapse by 2030

What is predicted to happen at the end of the century, that is, the disappearance of many current planetary ecosystems, risks happening much faster than anyone could have imagined. At least this is what a group of researchers from the University of Bangor and the University of Southampton in Great Britain claim in a recent study published in the journal Nature.

The fact that humanity is putting enormous pressure on ecosystems is no secret or revelation. Scientists call it “stress”. A stress that affects ecosystems in all corners of the world. As a result, rainforests tend to turn into savannahs or become agricultural land, desertifying the latter, coral reefs disappearing, and tundra melting, releasing huge amounts of methane.

Currently, more than 20% of the mentioned ecosystems are in such danger, but according to experts’ estimates, this percentage may suddenly increase to at least 80%. And as the pressure builds, everything will only get worse.

To find out how long we have until ecosystems reach the point of no return, experts used ecological models provided by areas that have already collapsed and applied the data to a computer model. When the stressors were compared to other regions of the globe in more than 700,000 simulations, they all showed that the risks were much higher than previously reported.

Thus, what was supposed to happen at the end of the 21st century risks happening in less than a decade. And the worst part is that once you reach this point, there is nothing you can do.

Space travel strongly affects the immune system

We are not designed for space travel, as much as we would like to. And until we invent technologies that mimic conditions on Earth, it is clear that we will have serious problems with long-duration space expeditions.

New evidence of this appeared in the form of a study published by a group of Canadian specialists in the journal Frontiers in Immunology. In particular, there is growing evidence that astronauts are susceptible to developing infections during missions.

The researchers took blood samples from 14 astronauts (3 women and 11 men) who participated in missions lasting between 4.5 and 6.5 months between 2015 and 2019. And the results of the analyzes showed that there are changes in the behavior of leukocytes. And this leads to a rapid weakening of the human immune system when it reaches space.

The good thing is that the white blood cells return to normal function when the person returns to Earth. The bad thing is that we don’t have a solution for such changes and risks. And this will definitely have a strong impact on future long-term projects that involve permanent bases on the Moon or manned flights to Mars.

Anyway, we hope you weren’t planning on going into space anytime soon and we didn’t spoil your plans.

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