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Satellite collision could be forerunner of space junk "avalanche," Oberg says
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Scientists and space trackers have a monster job ahead: trying to to figure out where debris particles from Tuesday's unprecedented crash of an old Russian military communications satellite and a working Iridium satellite will head short-term--as well as predicting their long-term decay paths. Meanwhile, former aerospace engineer and space expert Jim Oberg predicted that there will be even more space collisions in the future.
Given the proliferation of space-faring objects over the last fifty years, there's a lot of space junk orbiting Earth. Oberg, MSNBC's space consultant, said that eventually, enough smaller pieces drifting downward could bang into each other, space-snowballing into an avalanche.
In an interview with MSNBC, Oberg weighed in on the growing problem of the debris clogging up our space highways. He said that the growing debris fields pose real issues for future generations of launches from Earth.
Current missions, from satellite to manned events, such as the space shuttle or space station, must maneuver around space junk. Even a little piece of debris could damage a shuttle, the station, or a spacewalking astronaut's life support suit.
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