An issue that has concerned me for some time is the proliferation of orbital debris in the skies around our planet. Will it fill our spaceways to such a degree that we lose the ability to enter orbit, or move on to other destinations? Will it lead to some sort of catastrophic chain reaction, or Kessler Syndrome event, as shown in the movie “Gravity”? Can we do anything about it?
Ever the optimist, I think we can at least answer the last question with a yes. Certainly, there are groups working on the means and mission planning now, such as the these researchers at Texas A&M University:
There are regulations and international agreements that have mitigated a lot of the sources of new orbital debris, but we now need to deal with what is already up there. We may have begun the construction of a moving wall in space, but we need to break it back down and get rid of it.