BULGARIAN SCIENTISTS CONTRIBUTE TO CLEAN UP SPACE DEBRIS

Until 2020 the space around the planet will be cluttered with debris if no urgent measures are taken to remove them, data from Russia’s Space Agency indicates. The redundant objects may damage functional satellites and some of the orbital debris may start to fall towards the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere. In order to help with the removal of space junk, Bulgarian scientists are developing a system for monitoring and detection of polluted space areas.

In 1957 the former Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1 and this event put the beginning of the space race between the USA and the former USSR. At that time however hardly anyone thought that 50 years later the Earth orbit would look like a rubbish tip.

According to NASA data, at the moment close to 500 000 items, over 1 cm in size, exist in orbit.

“They are spent rocket stages and non-functional satellites. For example the Bulgarian satellite “Bulgaria 1300”, which was launched in 1981, has already run out of energy and if we do not bring it back to the Earth and if it does not burn up in the atmosphere, it is likely to remain in orbit for 550 years”, explained Associate Professor Aleksei Stoev from the Space Research and Technology Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

The debris contain precious and expensive metals, that could be recycled, added professor Garo Mardosiyan from the Space Research and Technology Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

The redundant debris move fast, reaching a speed of 28 000 km/h and may damage artificial satellites and spacecrafts, especially the International Space Station. The first debris clean-up mission is planned for 2020. But until then, a team of scientists, including Bulgarian ones, will contribute to collision avoidance solutions.

Associate professor Stoev is in charge of a small team of Bulgarian scientists who will monitor the movement of orbital debris from a station near the city of Stara Zagora in Southern Bulgaria. The data will help them to identify the least polluted areas, which will help with the planning of space missions.

The scientists will start work this autumn and the first results are expected at the end of the year.

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