Destination of dead spacecraft

Destination of dead spacecrafts;

We many know that, at beginning of last month, there was an uproar all over the world over a terrible issue. The Long March 5B rocket was launched into space in 2022 to send special (modules) for the Chinese space station Tiangong. It was launched on April 29 from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in China with a cargo weight of about 23 tons. But as soon as it went up to 350 km, the rocket started coming down abnormally. Although various parts of this huge rocket are spread as waste in space, a large part of it is coming towards the earth. It finally sank on May 9 near the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, ending all panic.

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Even if such an accident occurs due to a mechanical fault, the space rocket or various equipment of the useless space station is brought back to the earth after completion of work, most of which become unusable. In many cases rocket fuel booster tanks return to Earth. Although some parts are destroyed due to friction with the atmosphere, a large part remains as waste. What happens to all the space waste?

Scientists have chosen a safe place for the debris that has returned to Earth from so many space missions over the last few decades. The wreckage was dumped in this part of the Pacific Ocean, about 1450 nautical miles (about 265 kilometers) away. In 1992, survey engineer Harvoz Lucatella explored the region using the Geo Location Satellite. Scientists call it 'Point Nemo'. The Latin name means 'no one'. The famous French science fiction writer Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand League Under the SeaOne of the characters was Captain Nemo. Scientists use such methods so that people are not harmed by any device that comes out of space. It is located at 48 degrees 52.6 minutes south latitude and 123 degrees 23.6 minutes west longitude. Although far away from human settlements, the space stations are located in the sky just above the region, which is only 417 kilometers above. So if you want to drop something in Point Nemo, you just have to send it directly to Earth from the space station.

So far, more than 150 rocket boosters or space station equipment have been scattered throughout the area. That is why NASA has named this place 'Spacecraft Cemetery'.

Although there are not many problems with small satellites or rocket boosters, so far the laboratory of the entire space station has come down to Point Nemo. In September 2011, China launched their Tiangong-1 space station into space. Weighing about 7.5 tons, the space station is about 34 feet long. In just five years, China's space agency has lost control. After losing control, various parts of the space station started rushing towards the earth at high speed. In 2016, this huge wreckage merged at Point Nemo. In this way, on March 23, 2001, Russia's Mir space station merged with Nemo Point.

But just arranging the final destination of the spacecraft on the earth will not work anymore. Spacecraft that have already gone far enough to be brought back to Earth are crippled and buried in special orbits. Normal spacecraft, satellites and space stations orbit around 300 kilometers from Earth. When one of these does not have the energy to bring it back to Earth, the latest fuel is used to send it to an 'orbit graveyard' outside the region. So that the active spacecraft does not collide with all this.

Despite taking so many measures, scientists are very worried about this waste of space research. Because different countries are constantly sending their own spacecraft or satellites into space. The amount of waste is increasing. So researchers are planning to remove this waste in the future.

References: Mental Floss, BBC Earth, Space.com, Business Insider

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