The narrative discusses the challenges and dangers of space travel, specifically the increasing accumulation of space debris. It explains how rockets and satellites contribute to this problem, creating a "junkyard" of spent boosters, broken satellites, and shrapnel in low Earth orbit. This debris, moving at high speeds, poses a significant threat to the global infrastructure network, including satellites for global communication, GPS and navigation, weather data collection, asteroid detection, and scientific research.
The narrative also mentions the potential for catastrophic collisions between satellites, leading to a "collision cascade" that could destroy everything in orbit. The worst-case scenario is a debris field made of hundreds of millions of pieces, moving at 30,000 km/h, effectively creating a deadly barrier around Earth. This could set back dreams of moon bases, Mars colonies, or space travel at all, and send some of the technology we rely on daily back to the 1970s.
However, the narrative suggests that it might not be too late to clean up the space debris. It mentions several potential solutions, including capture and return missions, which involve meeting a piece of junk in orbit with a small satellite and a net, or using giant electromagnets to push on the magnetic components inside satellites. For the tiniest bits of junk, lasers might be the key to vaporising them entirely.
The narrative concludes by urging immediate action to prevent the trap of space debris from being set. It also mentions a collaboration between Kurzgesagt and Brilliant on a six-part video series about science and space topics, aimed at teaching science and maths in a practical way.
1. Space travel is the most exciting and challenging adventure humanity has ever undertaken.
2. With every rocket launched and with every satellite deployed, we're creating a trap for ourselves that gets deadlier and more dangerous every year.
3. Getting something into space is incredibly hard. To do so, you need to move very, very fast.
4. At first, straight up to leave the atmosphere, then sideways to begin a sort of circling around the Earth, still, very, very fast.
5. If you do that successfully you can enter a Low Earth orbit. And once in orbit, it's very hard to get out of orbit.
6. Rockets are really metal cylinders that keep big parts of fuel in place. Whenever a portion of the fuel has been spent, the empty tanks are dropped to make the rocket lighter.
7. Some parts crash down to earth or burn up in the atmosphere. But most of the useless rocket parts stay up and begin to orbit the planet.
8. After decades of space travel, low Earth orbit is a junkyard of spent boosters, broken satellites and millions of pieces of shrapnel.
9. This debris is moving at speeds of up to 30,000 km/h, circling Earth on criss-crossing orbits multiple times a day.
10. Orbital speeds are so fast that being hit by debris the size of a pea is like being shot by a plasma gun.
11. On impact the debris vaporises, releasing enough energy to punch holes straight through solid metal.
12. We've covered the space around our planet with millions of deadly pieces of destruction, and we also put a trillion dollar global infrastructure network right in the danger zone.
13. This network performs critical duties essential to the modern world: global communication, GPS and navigation, collecting weather data, looking out for asteroids.
14. If just one pea-sized bullet hits one of our 1,100 working satellites, it will be destroyed instantly.
15. Three or four satellites are already being destroyed this way every year.
16. As the number of satellites and the amount of junk in orbit is expected to grow tenfold in the next decade, we're approaching a tipping point.
17. But the worst thing in space is not tiny pieces of junk. The worst thing would be an unstoppable chain reaction that turns a lot of non junk things into junk.
18. If two satellites hit each other in just the right way, they don't stop and fall out of the sky. It's more of a splash than a crash.
19. Orbital speeds are so fast that solid pieces spray right through each other, transforming the two satellites into clouds of thousands of little things still fast enough to destroy more satellites.
20. This could trigger the slowest and most destructive sort of domino effect: a collision cascade.
21. One year one satellite is destroyed and that's no big deal. The next year, five. The year after, 50.
22. The situation in orbit is rapidly worsening and we may already be past the point of no return. Within 10 years space around Earth may no longer be viable for long term satellites or rockets.
23. The worst case scenario is horrifying.