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Why Space Junk Is A Bigger Threat Than You Think
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Why Space Junk Is A Bigger Threat Than You Think

50 MIN · EN · STATUS: [ STREAMING ]
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Nearly 6,000 satellites and millions of fragments of debris now circle the planet, and this film lays out how that traffic jam became a genuine hazard. It traces the problem from the early days of orbital launches through Cold War-era anti-satellite tests, which scattered some of the most dangerous debris still in orbit today, to the modern boom in satellite constellations. Interviews with scientists and engineers explain the Kessler Syndrome, the theoretical chain reaction in which one collision creates enough shrapnel to trigger more collisions, potentially locking humanity out of parts of low Earth orbit. The film covers what a stray bolt or paint fleck traveling at orbital speed can do to a spacecraft or spacewalking astronaut, and it looks at current efforts to track debris and design junk-collecting spacecraft to clean it up. The stakes reach past astronauts to GPS, weather forecasting, and the communications networks the ground depends on. The film treats orbit as a finite, degrading resource rather than empty space.