The European Space Agency hopes to demonstrate space junk removal in 2026—but now they have to recalibrate after their target got hit with debris.
” or “Kessler syndrome.” In these scenarios, the orbital space above Earth becomes so junky that debris collisions are essentially impossible to avoid, thus producing more debris, which begets more collisions, and so forth. Like our other pollution-based problems here on Earth, it’s difficult to estimate a time frame for an exact tipping point—but suffice to say, agencies like the ESA will know it when they see it.
Barring additional orbital shenanigans, here’s to hoping projects like ClearSpace-1 will achieve their goals and get much-needed space cleanup underway.Andrew Paul is Popular Science's staff writer covering tech news. Previously, he was a regular contributor to The A.V. Club and Input, and has had recent work also featured by Rolling Stone, Fangoria, GQ, Slate, NBC, as well as McSweeney's Internet Tendency. He lives outside Indianapolis.
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