Space & Astronomy

Could orbiting space junk cause World War 3 ?

By T.K. Randall
January 26, 2016

Image: Space Debris Plot
Credit: NASA Orbital Debris Program Office / (PD) NASA Space junk already represents a significant hazard to satellites and spacecraft, but now scientists in Russia have published a new report claiming that it could also have the potential to start a war.

The main problem, they argue, is that there is no way to tell whether a damaged satellite was hit by a fragment of debris or if it was deliberately sabotaged by another country.

Even the smallest pieces of debris, even objects a few millimeters across, can cause irreparable damage to a satellite because they are traveling at speeds of up to 17,500mph."The owner of the impacted and destroyed satellite can hardly quickly determine the real cause of the accident," wrote astrophysicist Vitaly Adushkin who concluded that such an event "may provoke political or even armed conflict between space-faring nations."

One such example occurred in 2013 when a Russian satellite was damaged by debris created by China when it shot down one of its own weather satellites five years earlier.

The International Space Station is also often forced to take evasive action to avoid space junk.

The report concluded that unless something is done to curb the quantity of debris in orbit then collisions will become increasingly likely - as will the potential for associated political strife.

Source: Independent

Tags: Space Junk, World War 3