Is Outer Space the New Wild West? (Robert Wright & Douglas Ligor)
Robert Wright's Nonzero
00:00
Why the Debris Keeps Growing
Every launch creates a certain amount of debris. Because you have pieces that fly off the launch vehicles themselves. So, so depending on how high it is, depending on its altitude, it can fall back and burn up. There are debris mitigation guidelines that countries are supposed to follow but they're not agreed upon in terms of any sort of compliance mechanism or binding effect. And what's more problematic is we don't measure compliance. Even if China says they're following debris mitigation and their launches, you know, 95% of their launch material. falls back and burns up in the atmosphere where there's no way to ensure that that's actually the case.
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