An Entertainment Odyssey: Exploring Celestial Debris
William Payne III, R&D Engineer
9-minute read
SILENCE
A close-up shot of a woman's face slowly pans out to show a helmet, a space suit, and eventually the stars. The astronaut is floating in front of an open access panel on the side of a ship module showing various electronics in disarray.
Eyes closed, astronaut Yadav has turned off her radio. She just needs 30 seconds to take a deep breath and focus on finding a resolution to the fried circuit board of the exterior panel she is working on. Her frustration brims as she remembers leaving the pouch of small pry tools for wire connectors sitting in the suit-up area.
“It’s fine,” she says aloud to audibly reassure herself. “I’ll just call back to Richards, he should almost be ready to exit the rear port and head this way.”
She opens her eyes, exhales deeply, and turns her radio back on.
“Richards, this is Yadav, could you grab the pry-pouch on your way out here? I’ve got a fried board on panel 16.”
The sound of pulsing static flows through the radio. A few moments go by with no response.
“Richards, Yadav to Richards?” she says in mild irritation. A few moments pass before she begins to shift on the hold point and move into the open area of the remote module. She radios in again. “Command this is Yadav. Does anyone have eyes on Richards, I need the…” Yadav loses the words as she peaks out into the open space. “Oh my god…” she says as she sees the surrounding area is now nothing but debris of the station which only moments ago she had been trying to communicate with. The pieces of the place she called home for the last three months were scattered in every direction.
As the horror of the situation creeps up her spine, she has only a few moments to process what has happened before realizing a massive piece of the shuttle debris is drifting towards her module, fast. She clutches the support bar as tight as possible while the debris barrels straight at her. As the debris strikes the module, she lets out a scream that no one hears, and the mission that was supposed to be routine maintenance comes to a close.
SILENCE
The entertainment industry likes to use short stories such as the one above as a starting point for a movie, show, or even a novel. As a viewer, the emotional investment of an astronaut dealing with the mundane frustrations that anyone deals with in their everyday life, followed by the catastrophic conclusion one wouldn’t expect in a regular day on Earth is much more intense. While often riddled with inaccuracies or misconceptions of the physics and mechanics of how space works, it is often shown to be a zero-gravity ocean where one small error leaves someone floating off into deep space or crashing back into the atmosphere.
Incidentally, there is a repeating trope used by much of the entertainment industry: space debris. The concept of being afloat in space and having a meteor, satellite, or some object in disarray fly by and cause havoc has been used relentlessly as a narrative. The unfortunate truth is that this is a real problem dealt with internationally by space companies (public and private), nonprofits, and governments alike. Interestingly enough, the problem was “predicted” in so many forms of entertainment before, it’s striking that it wasn’t considered a serious issue sooner.
A good example of early mention pertaining to space debris would be in the novel Deadly Litter by James White published in 1959, just two years after Sputnik launched. In his novel, White portrays a future where space travel and development are exceptionally prevalent. He focuses on the idea that humans are unable to break free from our habit of conquering new frontiers and leaving a trail of trash every step of the way. While the narrative of the story suggests that in the story’s reality, there are a slew of laws and penalties to prevent space debris, the truth is that in the real world legislation for space debris is an ongoing issue that calls back to the folly of human nature. Sixty-four years later, White's narrative has come true in a few regards. In-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing (ISAM) is actively being developed and will revolutionize the space industry; buildings, vessels, and travel mediums will be built in space for space. While that plunge into a new industry is exciting, it is unfortunate that White's narrative surrounding the dangerous debris environment also came true. Notably, this story came out 19 years before the published paper on the dangers of space debris by NASA scientist Don Kessler and his colleagues.
Moving beyond novels and before we even touch the animation and film industry, the music industry has also released many songs about the present issue. A catchy example of one such song is Space Junk by Devo released in 1978. The classic tune talks about space junk pelting into the Earth, hitting and killing a girl named Sally, and continues to tell a story about further satellites and pieces of debris pelting the Earth as a whole. While the tune might not have been intended to be a movement to prevent atmospheric debris, it did coalesce a concern about the accumulation of man-made objects in space. Even today, the song holds both satirical and serious merit. All too often we hear of pieces of planes falling off and landing in the yard of some unlucky folks. Less frequently do we hear about space debris making its way through the atmosphere and impacting the Earth or some unsuspecting victim such as Sally. However, space debris does enter the atmosphere regularly. NESDIS states that between 200-400 tracked items enter the atmosphere each year, most of which burn up upon entry or land in the oceans that cover 70% of the planet. Notice the term tracked items is used in this instance, but the reality is that there are over 170 million pieces of debris in Earth's orbit, some naturally occurring as rock fragments, others being rocket or satellite fragments, and are smaller than 1mm. Although that quantity seems daunting, small debris burns up nearly instantly upon entering the atmosphere. Of that 170 million, around 55,000 pieces are the size of a softball or larger and have the potential to damage spacecraft, satellites, or other similarly sized debris pieces floating in LEO.
Although there are plenty of novels and songs that bring focus to the space industry, Hollywood takes the lead in terms of volume and engagement. From TV shows to movies, the amount of space-related content is truly amazing. Covering various genres, space-focused films tend to produce large audiences mesmerized by the intensity and overlapping of science fiction. Picking one such film that brings attention to the dangers of space debris is difficult, but a shallow dive into the film Armageddon is a great example.
The plot is not an uncommon one; a large asteroid capable of total earth annihilation is barreling toward the planet and nobody saw it coming. This sort of narrative always produces a pit in the viewer's stomach and a feeling of uneasiness as it portrays a realistic event that happens to planets across the universe. Looking past the comical idea that it makes more sense to train a drilling crew to be astronauts in one week to save the planet (rather than astronauts to drill) and the preposterously dangerous methods they attempt to launch two ships side by side, the film does present some very accurate information about space debris that KMI is attempting to solve with our TumblEye and REACCH technologies; debris is flying fast and tumbling hard.
As mentioned before, the debris orbiting the planet is traveling thousands of miles per hour. Even after matching the speed of an item, there are three axes for the debris to be spinning on with a total of six degrees of freedom. They discuss this late in Armageddon when the Earth-ending asteroid ends up rotating along a third axis, further complicating their efforts to use a warhead internally to separate the massive rock in order to have the two pieces fly past Earth. Although the brief mention of this issue is pushed off in the movie, this is a genuine issue that can cause collisions between objects to be devastating.
This is a huge consideration for KMI’s Laelaps project because if contact is made without matching these rotations, the mechanical arms or other systems could be severely damaged, even torn clean off, creating a failed mission and even more space debris in the process. The rag-tag team of drill worker astronauts in Armageddon may have saved Earth by the skin of their teeth by the end of the film, but at KMI and across the real-life space industry, we are all still working to tackle similar problems portrayed in this film. If space cleanup was easy, it would already be done!
What inspired this column was not literature, songs, or movies though, it was a cult classic anime called Cowboy Bebop created by Hajime Yatate and released in 1998. Categorized as a neo-noir space western (which I just had to include because I love how dynamic anime categories can be), the anime follows bounty hunter Spike Spiegel and his eccentric hodgepodge team through their exciting and adventurous journeys to capture criminals. While the series subtly presents many real-world issues in each episode that directly translate to issues of the era, the episode that sticks out is the ninth session, Jamming With Edward. In this episode, the motley crew takes a bit of a vacation and heads back to Earth where few reside. As they approach the planet, LEO is shown to be completely packed with defunct satellites, debris, and general space junk. Even in this anime universe, Kessler Syndrome has taken hold. The crew then has to maneuver through all of these items to land on the planet and it poses quite a challenge. Where the rest of the episode revolves around the antics of a young hacker taking over retired satellites and a separate mysterious AI defense satellite that has gone mild-mannered and sentient, I just can’t get past the idea that a Japanese cartoon from 1998 accurately portrayed the real problem we are still dealing with decades later, in 2024.
What was further disconcerting, it actually felt normal to see and was not particularly a surprise to the viewers. Serious issues being so easily dismissed is an accurate portrayal of society as a whole. Where small groups may put forth all effort to solve various scientific problems, the geopolitical atmosphere and concerns of multiple realities can cause bureaucratic slowdowns and uncooperative development (or lack thereof) that affect the very real present and compromise the future even more.
In the same general category, Planetes by Makoto Yukimura was another anime broadcast a few years later that focused heavily on the issue of space debris. Where Cowboy Bebop glanced at the issue as a moderate inconvenience, Planetes' plot was more conscientious of the real-life detriments of this unmitigated problem. The show follows a small crew stationed in space whose primary goal is to clean up as much floating garbage as possible to prevent corporate loss. Similar to many problems regarding waste management in all forms, the crew struggles to maintain adequate funding, is short-staffed, and is overworked in their struggle to live in the silence of space and take care of the ever-growing amount of debris. Where the show is littered with mild goofiness intertwined with some very intense and serious problems, it is again surprising that viewers can witness these issues in simple entertainment, yet be unaware of or disregard the same problem happening in reality. That being said, it is still refreshing to see the entertainment industry highlight these issues as it brings awareness which can impart passion and ideology to fresh young minds.
From literature to music, movies to shows, the entertainment industry has capitalized on the topic of space debris. While some were looking to take a lighthearted approach to sell their idea and simply share stories, others had motives to bring awareness to the general public. The human race has always looked to the stars and dreamed of the mysteries of space. Through generations of technology, the wheel of understanding has begun spinning faster and faster, pushing humanity with increased gusto. While this is necessary for the betterment of humanity, it is much too easy to leave a trail of detritus that blocks the way for those following. As competitive action caused many of these problems, cooperative action is likely the greatest way to solve the problems that space debris creates as it affects the safety and advancement of the world as a whole. Prior to working in the space industry, my own exposure to the issues at hand was surface level as most. The concept of space debris and the problems it creates never crossed my mind, even hearing, reading, and watching it in various forms of entertainment. Now having a much better understanding and personally working toward the solution, I have respect for the entertainment industry for providing a spotlight on key aspects of the issue. Increasing the general awareness of the topic through the population's consumption of media will hopefully lead to increased support for solving the issue of keeping space clear for all.
Recommended column to read next: Space Questions for the Everyday - Volume III