For Stéphanie Lizy-Destrez, lecturer-researcher in space systems design Link: at ISAE-Supaero, "there has never been such an acceleration" in activity in the history of the space sector.
This overheating is partly linked to the deployment of satellite constellations Link: Starlink type, Link: OneWeb or Kuiper.
Each of them being made up of several hundred or even several thousand satellites.
Moving at several kilometers per second, space objects accumulate Link: kinetic energy that can be devastating in the event of a frontal collision with a telecommunications satellite
Can we really fear that the sky will fall on our heads or, more precisely, that a titanium object coming from a rocket will come crashing down on us?
"All of the space debris and objects in space is like adding a few liters to the Mediterranean."
This is the analogy chosen by Stéphanie Lizy-Destrez, teacher-researcher in space systems design at ISAE-Supaero, to help us understand the place that still remains around our planet.
So there is room, lots of room.
But be careful, she warns us immediately, “there has never been such an acceleration in the activity in the history of the space sector.
This overheating is partly linked to the deployment of satellite constellations such as Starlink, OneWeb or Kuiper.
Each of them being made up of several hundred or even several thousand satellites.
Up to 36,000 km from Earth
Above our heads, at about 300 km for the closest and up to 36,000 km for the furthest, there are many satellites circulating.
Toddlers like the CubeSat weighing less than 2 kg and huge ones, weighing several tons, like the Envisat, now out of service.
But these are not the only objects found in space.
There are all the parts abandoned during successive take-offs such as the upper stages of space launchers.
There are also two space stations, the ISS (International Space Station) and the CSS (China Space Station).
But also all satellites that have broken down or have reached their end of life.
And then there is debris.
Millions of debris from aging equipment and collisions that may occur between them.
"We have about 330 million"
"Those who are below one centimeter, we have about 330 million […] Those who are between one centimeter and ten centimeters, it's around one million" explains Stéphanie Lizy-Destrez, based on an inventory dating of January 2022. The largest, beyond 10 centimeters are counted in a few tens of thousands.
If there is little risk of receiving them on the head, the atmosphere playing a role of shield disintegrating almost everything, all these objects nevertheless pose a real danger to our modern societies.
Agriculture, environment, navigation, geolocation, transport, telemedicine are all areas that use space-related services and for which a broken or destroyed satellite can have serious consequences.
It's not the size that matters.
It's speed.
A few millimeters may seem paltry on the scale of space, but it's not so much their size that counts as their speed.
Moving at several kilometers per second, space objects accumulate kinetic energy that can be devastating in the event of a frontal impact with a telecommunications satellite, for example, or worse, a manned space station.
Moreover, the ISS "is obliged to make maneuvers regularly" to reduce the risk of collision and it is nevertheless impacted by small debris.
Real risks taken into account by the various space agencies which have modified the design of their satellites to make them more and more manoeuvrable.
The Moon is also a collateral victim of this exponential spatial development.
Unlike the Earth, it is not protected by its atmosphere and could see itself more and more often hit by our waste over time, as was the case at the beginning of March 2022.
Space like our oceans on Earth
Some countries, aware of the risks, provide for the destruction or placement in graveyard orbit as soon as their equipment is sent.
Others don't.
Initiatives are launched to imagine how to clean the space.
With her team, Stéphanie Lizy-Destrez wants to create a circular space economy to build new objects with the materials already present rather than sending them by rocket.
If she considers that there is a real awareness of this problem, "the action that we are taking is a little slow compared to the dynamics of the increase in debris that we are currently seeing".
Space, in many respects, can be compared on Earth, to our oceans, where, beyond national waters, there would be a zone of lawlessness, where everything would be possible and still to be invented, where the question of pollution , reasoned use, preservation for the benefit of future generations would arise only in a second stage.
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Space
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