"Preventing the addition of new debris is no longer sufficient. We must now actively clean up the space environment to halt the onset of a chain reaction that could render heavily utilised regions unusable. Immediate and decisive action is necessary." Read the ESA Space Environment Report 2025 👇 - ThreadSky

esa.int • 3 days ago

"Preventing the addition of new debris is no longer sufficient. We must now actively clean up the space environment to halt the onset of a chain reaction that could render heavily utilised regions unusable. Immediate and decisive action is necessary."

Read the ESA Space Environment Report 2025 👇

Comments

fretymr.bsky.social•3 days ago

yeah, no surprise with the new fashion being rocket startups...

hihkatharine.bsky.social•3 days ago

Removing Starlink and all its space garbage would be a great start.

rubikm.bsky.social•3 days ago

While I dislike the fellow intensely, Starlink is among the lowest end of Kessler Syndrome risk. They are so low they deorbit rapidly from drag.

mikekeating.bsky.social•2 days ago

how long do they stay in orbit for?

this guy loves making stuff that crashes into the earth apparently

rubikm.bsky.social•2 days ago

Service life, With propulsion, is about 8 years from memory, much less if their ion thrusters stop working.

johnsalomon.bsky.social•3 days ago

Removing its earthbound garbage would be a great bonus.

hihkatharine.bsky.social•3 days ago

💯

eyeswidecurious.bsky.social•3 days ago

Trash ALL Starlink satellites. That would be a great start.

cathy-es123.bsky.social•2 days ago

yeah

adamperl.com•3 days ago

The same thing could be said about US politics!

bottasheimfe.bsky.social•3 days ago

oh shit. we're rapidly approaching Kessler Syndrome. for anyone not aware, Kessler Syndrome is when orbital debris around a planet is so thick that any attempts to enter orbit are met with continuous bombardment of debris, akin to getting shot by a thousand machine guns perpetually.

misspoo.bsky.social•2 days ago

Bad enough that we f'up Earth's environment, now we are doing it to Space.

autumnjohnson.bsky.social•3 days ago

It's hard to clean up the earth when you have a group of politicians sitting back pretending like global warning is not a side effect of their b*******
Now we need to clean up space as well!

eraniel.bsky.social•3 days ago

What impact will this have on the atmospheric chemistry that is already being impacted by the regular de-orbiting of Starlink satellites? Is that being taken into account in your debris mitigation efforts?

satiricalplanet.bsky.social•20 hours ago

Earth’s newest monument: a shimmering belt of trash that’s equal parts hilarious and horrifying. Forget national flags or interstellar probe, our true legacy is a glittering ring of junk, proof that wherever humans go, garbage follows.

https://aiwillybillhuman.substack.com/p/humanitys-greatest-contribution-to

mr-steely.bsky.social•3 days ago

Isn't elon launching an xMagnet that will scoop up all the debris and then bring it back to earth to be used in the new tesla "model X space edition"

paintsewgluechew.bsky.social•3 days ago

Of course he is

arjeninthesky.bsky.social•2 days ago

only going to happen once certain orbital lanes are banned from usage by commercial parties. and when the lanes left are unusable. but even then the cleanup is highly likely to be publicly funded. which is probably not entirely unwarranted. but still, feels bad. tax the billionares, fund space!

kimishere2.bsky.social•3 days ago

Guess what happens if we experience another Carrington Event? Everything up must come down. Thousands of satellites crashing everywhere.

edgeoftheworld.cz•3 days ago

There wouldn't be much crashing involved. Most satellites would just burn down in atmosphere, they're not massive enough.

robishungry.bsky.social•2 days ago

How many bits is musk adding each day again 👀

smallstar67.bsky.social•3 days ago

Start with Starlink.

derekmlacey.bsky.social•3 days ago

As the lady on the northbound 4/5 NYC subway say so succinctly years ago, “we are the plague”.

slavagondor.bsky.social•3 days ago

Time to bring this out of retirement

kimmok.bsky.social•3 days ago

No need.
https://www.rocketlabusa.com/launch/neutron/
😉

slavagondor.bsky.social•3 days ago

I refuse to believe that's not Blofeld's rocket taken out of storage ;)

johnsalomon.bsky.social•3 days ago

Needs googly eyes, though.

OM NOM NOM

vonneely.bsky.social•2 days ago

Ah Keppler Syndrome. At the aliens will have a harder time invading us.

"The humans have some kind of kinetic defense shield around their planet!"

stevenilevey.bsky.social•3 days ago

Surprised it hasn’t happened yet satellites are traveling at 17,500 mph. my question is, how do you even clean the crap up?

ranyc.bsky.social•2 days ago

It isn't just space that needs cleaning; the ocean has to be cleaned too.

sandcrawler1990.bsky.social•3 days ago

pizzaonsec.bsky.social•3 days ago

space sweeping time!

kategladm.bsky.social•3 days ago

How about these billionaire tech bros cool their phucking heels and we put a stop to their video game antics that are destroying our planet and lives?

militaryanalyst.bsky.social•3 days ago

Back in 1970 the TV series UFO spent an entire episode based on the fact there was so much human space debris aliens were using it to hide their approach to Earth. It may have been live sci-fi but you have to give Gerry Anderson his due for foreseeing the problem.

grimmrad.bsky.social•3 days ago

Meanwhile a certain company is shooting up small satellites by the dozens…

xwood4000.bsky.social•3 days ago

Most of them are Starlinks and they burn up by themselves if they malfunction and deorbit themselves succesfully, they can't cause a Kessler syndrome. Still bad for astronomy. It's the normal satellites that are launched less that may be the problem. We need governments to step up and regulate.

grimmrad.bsky.social•3 days ago

Thanks for clarifying - but if a Starlink hits something else or is hit by another piece of space trash (I remember a car up there) the phenomenon would still be there, no? And since there are many, many Starling satellites I'd assume the chance would still be there?

xwood4000.bsky.social•2 days ago

I'll finish by saying that I'm not a professional, only a space enthusiast with high school physics being the highest credentials for this. For example @planet4589.bsky.social is an expert at tracking space objects, I recommend following him if you want to learn more. And ESA is a good resource

xwood4000.bsky.social•2 days ago

The Tesla car is orbiting around the Sun sorta between us and Mars. It's extremely far away. The biggest problem with space trash in low earth orbit are rocket parts that are thrown away, like whole stages, couplers, fairings... If you read the article the biggest danger is past intentional crashes

grimmrad.bsky.social•2 days ago

Ah, forgot that they send them so far out. Then it of course doesn't count towards this.

xwood4000.bsky.social•2 days ago

Sort of yes, it could happen at the Starlink orbits but they are placed in an orbit with a tiny amount of air particles so they should still deorbit within 5 years. A big crash may raise the orbit some from the combined energy, but I personally think that it would still come down pretty soon.

darthsatoris.bsky.social•3 days ago

I swear if Musk becomes the reason the Earth will get Kessler Syndrome, I will rage SO hard.

golfwriterkiel.bsky.social•3 days ago

Thanks for posting this!

johnsalomon.bsky.social•3 days ago

For the hard sci fi and manga/anime geeks in here interested in this topic, I recommend Planetes - beautifully done near-future series around the theme of cleaning up space junk.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes

oldandslow.bsky.social•3 days ago

I wanted to make sure somebody gave this a shout-out! Have an excellent day

txeightiesgirl.bsky.social•3 days ago

WTH??? 🤦‍♀️ but I still have trouble getting a signal on my phone??

edgeoftheworld.cz•3 days ago

I don't think your phone gets its signal from orbit. Outside of GPS signal, that is.

ricyrick87.bsky.social•3 days ago

Cleaning up space, like how we need to clean up earth... There's a lesson here somewhere

rds-level-10.bsky.social•3 days ago

This.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome

0self.bsky.social•3 days ago

The Humanity System struggles to maintain its critical infrastructure without distributed awareness of its emergence. This is a topology problem with hierarchical control.

affandi-satya.bsky.social•3 days ago

Even cleaning service needs budget.

andromedaascendant.bsky.social•3 days ago

Sure. Taxpayers will cover it, so that Starlink is not bothered.

nickybshaw.bsky.social•3 days ago

And make sure the super expensive tech is recycled.
#SpaceTrash
#SatelliteRecycling

eolix.bsky.social•3 days ago

johnsalomon.bsky.social•3 days ago

Obligatory RIP Space Bat

martinfaced.bsky.social•3 days ago

Humans are so disgusting, it seems all we do is spread filth

ceglarm.bsky.social•3 days ago

Just use a space bulldozer.
Satellites that can't evade will be destroyed.
Rightly so, because of outdated technology.😎

joeschmo999.bsky.social•3 days ago

Spaceballs the movie:

bertdz1.bsky.social•3 days ago

Start with the Starlink network

alpha-aurora.bsky.social•2 days ago

Why don’t you end SpaceX and STARLINK and Musks literal littering of space

aefondms.bsky.social•3 days ago

Humans and their crap. We can't help messing up everything beautiful.

marc-ej.bsky.social•3 days ago

you need the salvage 1 guys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE4SePvpais

ccdude8.bsky.social•3 days ago

Blow up Starlink's satellites and clean up the planet.

mdksun.bsky.social•3 days ago

Prediction: like with everything else, we do nothing.

darksapiens.bsky.social•2 days ago

📌

bonekyjo.bsky.social•3 days ago

We can start by cleaning up the Musk debris on earth... he's creating "universal" garbage.

askjeeves53.bsky.social•3 days ago

Could be an explanation for faking manned spaceflights, cause the debris collision risk is too high. Could be why the 2nd Shuttle blew up? So all that's left is satellite launches from ass holes continuing the lie (Bezos and fElon)?

edington87.bsky.social•2 days ago

yes i agree with this something must be done this cant continue as it is

asceptic.bsky.social•2 days ago

I remember the first sputnik moving through the evening sky. Never realized the damn things would breed like rabbits.

idiotsrule.bsky.social•3 days ago

Did someone unplug the vacuum?

bethabeethan.bsky.social•3 days ago

fodder-figure.bsky.social•3 days ago

Need some kind of hardened "satellite" that can deflect smaller debris out of orbit, or somehow slow them down so they fall on their own .. and for the bigger stuff something to clamp onto them and perform a controlled descent ...

ang-photos.bsky.social•2 days ago

Chicken Little’s ultimate nightmare.

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