UNDERSTANDING THE MISUNDERSTOOD KESSLER SYNDROME

Kelvey takes the measure of Kessler Syndrome, the theory that cascading collisions of debris could ruin humanity's future in space. All experts he spoke with agreed that Kessler Syndrome cascade is something that, whether it has begun or not, would play out over the course of decades if not centuries, rather than fitting into the runtime of a Hollywood drama. Matney says that Kessler Syndrome won't cause orbital altitudes to be unusable. It's more like a gradual degradation that's going to cost everybody more money. The prospect of losing money leads naturally to the question of just what should be done about orbital debris, and there are two generally agreed-upon major actions to take. The first step is to make sure that new junk doesn't get added. The second step is to remove large pieces of junk that have the potential to be the sources of cascading debris events in a Kessler Syndrome scenario. Not creating new debris is largely a matter of adhering to the rule in the US and Europe that satellites must not stay in orbit longer than five years after their mission is completed.