‘Gravity’ is not so far fetched about a space catastrophe

In one of last year’s most popular movies, Gravity, moviegoers experienced a gut-wrenching drama while rooting for Sandra Bullock to survive a dangerous encounter with space junk. Fiction? Yes, but not so far fetched.

Lawrence Wein and Andrew Bradley, two scholars from Stanford University, say the likelihood of a major space junk collision is low for now, but space-faring nations need to take responsibility for ensuring it remains so.

There have been several recent collisions in space, including a 26,000-mph accident in 2009 between an American communications satellite and an inactive Russian satellite. However, complex 3-D computer simulation models, which track every object larger than a softball in low Earth orbit, have revealed that the likelihood of a satellite experiencing a catastrophic collision with orbital debris during its operational lifetime is very small during the next 200 years.

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These computer models, developed at NASA and elsewhere, run for only 200 years because of their immense complexity. They predict the likelihood of collisions at less than 1 in 1,000 in the most congested region of space, which is 900- to 1,000-kilometers altitude. This risk is negligible compared to the risks of mission-impacting failure due to electromechanical problems. Those occur at a rate of 10-20%.

However, space junk are piling and if not limited could reach a tipping point.

Importantly, relatively inexpensive mitigation measures are available to limit the amount of space debris that does clutter up orbit paths. Many countries adhere to an international 25-year rule for post-mission disposal, where sufficient fuel is left in the tank at the end of a mission to maneuver the satellite to an orbit from which it will decay within 25 years. In addition, some satellites are capable of avoidance maneuvers in space in the event that a collision is imminent.

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The professors have developed a system of mathematical equations that is capable of predicting collisions for thousands of years into the future. They have found that the risk can remain manageable — less than 1 in 1,000 — if deorbit compliance to the 25-year rule is very high.

However, the tipping point is closer that we think: the model predicts that the maximum future risk is 1 in 1,000 if compliance is 98%, but increases to 1 in 100 if compliance is only 85%.

On top of all this, their computations assume no irresponsible behavior, so if it occurs the odds of a spacial catastrophe is much higher.

So far, less than 90% of upper-stage rockets have been deorbited from low Earth orbit in each major space-faring nation in the last decade. (Photo Warner Bros.)

In fact, Russia has not recently tested an anti-satellite missile, even though a legacy of the Cold War is that the majority of large objects in space are old satellite parts from the former Soviet Union and the United States. However, China’s 2007 anti-satellite test created an enormous amount of debris in low Earth orbit, a piece of which destroyed a Russian nano-satellite last year. In 2008, the United States performed a similar operation, but the target was much lower and so the debris deorbited quickly.

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Because the risk of a catastrophic collision increases by roughly 50% over the next 200 years, some have called for active remediation of the space environment, which means removing large inactive objects from space. Several technological approaches have been suggested for how to do this. Proposals include nets connected to 6-mile-long wire tethers to drag debris down, and balloons or robot-installed engines or lasers to alter objects’ orbit. But these are early days and no approach has been shown to be reliable and cost effective.

So far, less than 90% of upper-stage rockets have been deorbited from low Earth orbit in each major space-faring nation in the last decade.

We are at a critical time when responsibility in space will determine the cost of access to space for generations to come. (Photo Warner Bros.)

Lawrence Wein, Jeffrey S. Skoll Professor of Management Science at Stanford Graduate School of Business and Andrew Bradley, postdoctoral scholar in the Geophysics Department at Stanford School of Earth Sciences affirm that: “We are at a critical time when responsibility in space will determine the cost of access to space for generations to come. If we don’t very soon initiate and maintain relatively cheap and mundane measures, we will be forced to deploy much more expensive ones and thereby increase the cost of access to space. In addition to providing a safe environment for the future Sandra Bullocks in space, we need access to space for security and to maintain the benefits of satellites that we all take for granted.”

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