Government Technology

Crowded Skies


July 29, 2008 By

According to the European Space Agency (ESA), 80 percent of satellites and other man-made objects delivered into space stay at an altitude of 100 miles to 1,300 miles.


This zone is called low Earth orbit, or LEO. The International Space Station is in LEO - as are all space shuttle missions. In this ESA-created image, it's clear just how crowded LEO has become. NASA has long feared this crowding will result in the Kessler Syndrome - a circumstance in which orbiting objects smash into one another and create even more debris, which might eventually impact and destroy vital satellites.


You may use or reference this story with attribution and a link to
http://www.govtech.com/magazines/gt/Crowded-Skies.html


| More

Comments


Add Your Comment

You are solely responsible for the content of your comments. We reserve the right to remove comments that are considered profane, vulgar, obscene, factually inaccurate, off-topic, or considered a personal attack.

GovTech Papers and Case Studies View Library


Sponsored Links



Phone RSS

Government Best Practices

» A New Model for Human Resources
» Abandoning the High Cost of Enterprise Content Management



Government Technology
Public CIO
Emergency Management
Digital Communities