DNA Exclusive: Debris in space! Satellites causing pollution in cosmos, details here

New Delhi: We are all troubled by the pollution on the earth. But now humans have not spared even space which has become a victim of ‘pollution’. At present, more than 27,000 pieces of debris are floating in space. This has become a major cause for concern for the space stations.

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Tuesday (November 16) discussed the ‘pollution’ threat posed by the debris of satellites in space.

Russia recently shot down an old satellite of its own using an anti-satellite missile, adding thousands of new pieces of debris in space. After this, the debris started moving close to the International Space Station (ISS). There was a danger of collision. The situation became such that the astronauts on the ISS had to evacuate and take refuge in the spacecraft attached to the station.

These astronauts were told that the pieces of the destroyed satellite could collide with the space station and if this happened, they would have to abandon their mission midway and return to Earth. After about two hours, only when the threat was cleared did the astronauts return to their station.

However, the US space agency NASA has said that it will keep an eye on these pieces of the satellite and if there is a danger of collision, the astronauts will be asked to return to earth.

A week ago, there was a possibility of a satellite destroyed by China hitting an ISS, after which the entire station had to be shifted about a quarter of a kilometer away from its location.

The space stations are at about an altitude of 400 km from the earth, but despite being so far, they are in danger due to the pollution caused by humans.

The weapon Russia used is called anti-satellite weapon which is launched from earth to destroy satellites in space. Only America, Russia, China and India have been able to successfully test this technology so far. In March 2019, India shot down one of its inactive satellites at an altitude of 300 km from the earth using a similar missile.

Imagine what would happen if a war breaks out in space and rival countries attack and destroy the satellites.

All DTH/television services will stop working, so will internet, GPS system. Planes flying in the air will lose their way, even ships will not find their way. The economy of the world will come to a halt in a jiffy, and one will not be able to make any kind of online payment and even ATM and Banking services will stop working. The communication system of the whole world will come to a standstill. The intelligence, navigation, communication system of the armies will also stop.

This will be a war that would last only a few minutes or hours and in which not many people would lose lives, but our lives would be pushed back by about 200 years with no modern technological services available. It would indeed be a dangerous scenario.