DiscoverLong Now: Conversations at The IntervalSpace Debris and The Kessler Syndrome: A Possible Future Trapped on Earth: Creon Levit
Space Debris and The Kessler Syndrome: A Possible Future Trapped on Earth: Creon Levit

Space Debris and The Kessler Syndrome: A Possible Future Trapped on Earth: Creon Levit

Update: 2022-06-141
Share

Description

More than one hundred million pieces of human-made space debris currently orbit our planet, most moving at more than 10,000 mph. Every year their number increases, creating a progressively more dangerous environment for working spacecraft. In order to operate in space, we track most of this debris through a patchwork of private efforts and government defense networks.

Creon Levit spent over three decades at NASA, and is now the Director of R&D at Planet, a company that is imaging the earth everyday with one of the largest swarms of micro-satellites in the world. Creon will discuss the history of space debris, the way the debris is currently tracked, and how we might work to reduce it before we see a cascading effect of ballistic interactions that could render low orbit all but unusable.
Comments 
In Channel
loading
00:00
00:00
x

0.5x

0.8x

1.0x

1.25x

1.5x

2.0x

3.0x

Sleep Timer

Off

End of Episode

5 Minutes

10 Minutes

15 Minutes

30 Minutes

45 Minutes

60 Minutes

120 Minutes

Space Debris and The Kessler Syndrome: A Possible Future Trapped on Earth: Creon Levit

Space Debris and The Kessler Syndrome: A Possible Future Trapped on Earth: Creon Levit

The Long Now Foundation