However, up to now, there have been many times of debris falling from space on Earth, including an event that happened in 2020. Photo: CNN The good news is that the debris falling on Earth generally poses little threat to human safety. As Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard University, told CNN: “It’s not the end of the world.” Even so, the issue still raises related questions about debris in outer space, how uncontrollably they fall to Earth, and what precautions should be taken when that happens. out? There have been many times of debris falling back to Earth Most of the debris would be burned in the atmosphere before having a chance to make any impact on the Earth’s surface. However, some large objects, like rockets, may remain intact when returned to Earth and are also likely to fall into populated areas. In 2020, one of the largest debris in space flew over the skies of Los Angeles and Central Park in New York City before falling into the Atlantic. This is an empty core from Chinese missiles, weighing nearly 20 tons, is the largest piece of uncontrolled trash when it fell back to Earth since 1991 and is the fourth largest piece ever. Other larger pieces are from NASA’s Skylab space station in 1979, the missile core of Skylab in 1975, and the Soviet Salyut 7 space station in 1991. The space shuttle Columbia from 2003 could also be included in the list. This is because NASA lost control of the ship when it returned to Earth. How many debris are floating in space? The answer is a lot. Above us there is a “cloud” of more than 9,000 tons of space debris – the equivalent of the weight of 720 school buses. This cloud contains hundreds of thousands – maybe even millions – of objects orbiting uncontrollably, including used rocket propulsion engines, dead satellites and debris from the army’s anti-satellite missiles. These debris are concentrated in the orbital regions closest to the Earth’s surface. And while it does not pose a significant threat to humans on the ground, it does pose a threat to many active satellites that provide a number of services such as climate tracking, studying Earth climate. Land and telecommunications service providers. These debris also threaten the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS station had to readjust its orbit several times last year due to space debris. “A few years ago, we had about 1,000 satellites in orbit, but now we have 4,000 satellites,” said McDowell. The tricky problem is that space transport experts do not have a complete map of the objects orbiting the Earth. Potential collisions are being tracked using government or private trackers on the ground, but the process is largely predictable. When will Chinese rockets return to Earth? The Long March 5B missile is expected to return to Earth’s atmosphere around May 8, according to Defense Department spokesman Mike Howard. Space Command is currently monitoring the missile’s path. According to Howard, the point of return to Earth’s atmosphere could only be accurately determined a few hours ago difficult to start falling back to Earth. However, Space Control Unit 18 will update the missile’s exact location via the Space Track website. Astrophysicist McDowell explained that determining where debris could fall to Earth is almost impossible at this point because the rocket’s travel speed can vary and with only 1 change. Very small is enough to greatly change the direction of the missile. “We expect it to return around May 8-10. During those two days, it will travel around the Earth about 30 times and at a speed of about 18,000 km / h “, according to Mr. McDowell. Still, the oceans are still the safest place for debris to land, as it occupies most of the Earth’s surface. Do people need to be on guard? There’s no need to be on guard, said Mr. McDowell. “The risk of it causing some damage or hitting someone is very small. It can still happen, but the chance of it hitting you is extremely small. I won’t waste a second worrying about it. Because there are still other bigger things to think about, ”said McDowell.

This weekend, China’s Long March 5B (Truong Chinh 5B) missile will fall back to Earth. Instead of falling into the sea as originally planned, the Long March 5B was orbiting the Earth and lost control. The silence from the China National Space Administration (CNSA) coupled with the rocket’s too fast travel speed makes scientists at other space research institutions do not have enough computational data, see rockets. Where will it fall. Hard to have human casualties The Long March 5B missile is 30 meters long, weighs 22.5 tons, and when it falls to the ground the equivalent of a small plane falling and debris flying 160 km away. This is the comment of Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. In 2020, a 50 meter long fragment also from a Chinese rocket crashed into the Atlantic, just 13 minutes after passing New York City with 9 million inhabitants. However, a 12-meter-long piece may have crashed in a village on Ivory Coast, according to the report The Verge , from the source of the local newspaper Afriksoir. The villagers heard a loud explosion, lightning, and noise at the same time that scientists calculated missile debris. The 12-meter-long debris that fell on the village of Mahounou on Ivory Coast in May 2020 is believed to have belonged to the Truong Chinh 5B missile. Photo: Afrik Soir. The orbits re-enter the atmosphere of rockets, which are inherently difficult to predict, because they travel at speeds of thousands of kilometers per hour. Scientists can only calculate accuracy after the rocket has returned to the atmosphere and began to fall. However, according to Mr. McDowell’s estimates, there will be no loss of life. Rockets will usually be burned most of the time when they pass through the atmosphere. Only a few parts, which are designed to be more heat resistant, can fall back to Earth. However, with a planet’s surface area of ​​up to 75% that is water, and also much of the ground uninhabited, the probability that missile debris could fall right where humans are inhabited is very low. “The worst scenario is that when a small piece falls on a person, that person is more likely to die. The probability that a lot of people get a debris fall is not high,” said Jonathan McDoWell. With a landing speed of about 160 km / h, debris falling on structures and vehicles will also leave great consequences. However, since the debris will fall in an area up to 160 km in diameter, the likelihood that they will fall into an inhabited, residential area is also very low. The Long March 5B missile contains the core module of the new space station. Photo: Getty Images. According to the Independent Over the past decade there have been about 100 satellites, and the wreckage of the missile returns to Earth every year, with a total mass of 150 tons. However, most of them do not cause serious consequences. The mass of space junk that fell in 2020 is the fourth largest block to fall back to Earth in history, after the Skylab space station in 1979, the Skylab’s rocket deck in 1975, and the Salyut-7, the Soviet space station, At 1991. Big problem with space junk This is not the first time that CNSA has had problems with objects landing on Earth from space. In 2018, the Tiangong-1 space station freely fell into the Pacific, between Australia and Chile. The Ivory Coast incident in May 2020 was also caused by another Long March 5B missile. Although there is little potential to cause material or life damage, the disposal of rockets and satellites out of use still leaves many scientists a headache. When a satellite expires, becomes unusable, it resumes its orbit. A boosters after completing a mission to put the spacecraft into orbit will also be left in the air. And when two objects in the universe collide with each other and create millions of debris, they are also left in space. Cosmic debris are surrounding the Earth. Photo: Nikkei. No one has put a ship on board and collects debris in space. All materials left by humans so far are known as cosmic trash. NASA scientist Donald Kessler believes that colliding with two large pieces of space debris can create a domino effect, causing thousands of smaller debris to continue orbiting the Earth. Mr. Kessler warns there will be a day when space junk becomes so much that we cannot launch a satellite without hitting another object. By then, we will be prisoners on our own planet, and will not blame anyone else but humans. As for the controllable missiles, the space agencies will calculate to bring them back to Point Nemo, which is considered the “graveyard” of spacecraft in the ocean. With the closest distance to the mainland of 2,250 km, the South Pacific Ocean is considered the “pole of the ocean” and is no different than a desert region in the middle of the sea.

The largest missile center in China is falling out of control in orbit, after it carried part of the new space station into space last week. The object is expected to fall to Earth during an “uncontrolled re-entry” on May 8 or 9. Whether it falls harmlessly into the ocean or affects the land where humans live, the reason the Chinese space program allows this to happen is – again – unclear. And given China’s planned launch schedule, it is entirely possible that such uncontrolled re-imports continue to occur. Missile Truong Chinh 5B in a launch in 2020. (Photo: Xinhua) The China space program has a series of major spacecraft achievements over the past six months, including bringing back lunar rocks and sending spacecraft into orbit around Mars. However, the programs seem to continue to pose a small, though small danger to people across the planet without control of the path of the launched missile. Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who tracks objects in space, says: “I think it was their negligence. I think it is irresponsible. The uncontrolled drop is the reinforced core of Truong Chinh 5B, designed to lift large, heavy sections of the space station. For most rockets, the lower layers typically fall back to Earth shortly after launch. The upper layers, when they reach orbit, often reactivate the engine (after releasing the load), directing them to re-enter deserted areas such as the oceans. For the past three decades, only China has lifted layers of such large rockets into orbit and let them crash somewhere, said Dr. McDowell. “It is a technical decision based on possibilities.” He said that Chinese engineers were able to design the trajectory of the rocket so that it would remain in orbit, fall back to Earth shortly after launch, or they might have planned to activate the booster. fig to get it out of orbit in a non-dangerous way. Ted J. Muelhaupt, director of the Center for Orbital Research and Aerospace Debris re-entry, says: “The reintegration design cannot be taken lightly, it’s something the world as a whole has done because we need it.” As for Truong Chinh 5B reinforcement, it could be anywhere between 41.5 North latitude and 41.5 South latitude. That means Chicago, located further north, is safe, but big cities like New York could suffer. On May 6, Aerospace Corporation, a federally funded nonprofit that conducts research and analysis largely, predicts the re-entry will take place on May 8 at 11:43 p.m. Eastern time (10:43 p.m. 9/5 Vietnam time). If that is correct, the debris could fall to Northeast Africa, in Sudan. The timing uncertainty – a 16-hour fluctuation – and location are still large. A day ago, Aerospace predicted the re-entry site an hour in advance in the Eastern Indian Ocean. The calculations are complicated by many factors, for example, the sun. The increase in the intensity of the solar wind – charged particles sprayed by the sun – will inflate the Earth’s atmosphere, increasing its force on the object and increasing its rate of fall. The movement of the object also affects. The US Space Command and the Russian space agency are both monitoring the missile division. The Russian statement noted that the re-import will not “affect the territory of the Russian Federation” . The US agency meanwhile promised to update it regularly before the event was likely to take place. Currently the object is moving at a speed of about 29,868 km / h, so prediction of position also changes with each minute. China plans to launch several more launches in the coming months as the construction of its third space station is completed, known as the Heavenly Palace, or “palace in the sky”. That would require additional flights of giant rockets and the possibility of more uncontrolled re-imports leaving people on the ground anxious to follow, even when mishaps from single parts. very small. Jen Psaki, White House press secretary, said on May 5: “For the mutual benefit of all nations, it is necessary to act responsibly in space to ensure the safety, stability, security and long-term sustainability of space activities”. America hopes to push “Responsible spatial behavior”.

China’s Long March (Truong Chinh) 5B missile was launched last Thursday A Chinese uncontrolled 21-ton missile is falling on Earth and could land in densely populated areas, experts warn. China’s Long March (Truong Chinh) 5B rocket launched last Thursday is expected to fall back to Earth in the next few days. Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer who tracks objects orbiting the Earth, said SpaceNews that its path was “slightly further north than New York, Madrid and Beijing, and as far south as Chile and Wellington, New Zealand”. The missile can fall anywhere within this range, including oceans and densely populated or uninhabited areas, but most missiles will burn in the atmosphere. Satellite tracking devices have detected missiles longer than 30m cruise at speeds of more than 6.4km / s. China launched the Long March 5B at 11:23 a.m. local time last Thursday to make the first phase of their upcoming space station. The module that the missile carries, dubbed ‘Thien Hoa’, will be inhabited by the three crew members after the space station’s giant structure is complete. State media reported that China aims to complete the China Space Station, known as Tiangong (Tiangong) by the end of 2022, after several other modules have been launched. When completed, the Tiangong Space Station will orbit the Earth at an altitude of 340-450km. China aims to become a space power by 2030 to keep up with rivals, including the US, Russia and the European Space Agency, and create the most advanced space station around Earth. The ISS International Space Station, currently in orbit, takes 10 years and more than 30 missions to assemble since the launch of the first module in 1998. The ISS was supported by five space agencies – NASA (USA), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe) and CSA (Canada) – but China was initially banned from the United States. However, the unsettled return of the missile could put an end to the Chinese celebration if the vehicle lands in an inhabited area. Cosmic debris watchers have observed it moving slowly and unpredictably to Earth over the past few days and it will be one of the largest uncontrolled debris on record. The Long March 5B is about 33m long, 5.3m wide and although more than 10 tons of space debris has been left in orbit for an uncontrolled return to ground flight, Mr McDowell said “by current standards. , it’s unacceptable to let it come back uncontrollably. ” Holger Krag, head of the European Space Agency’s Office of Space Safety Programs, told SpaceNews that: ‘China is aware of the potential danger of out-of-control’. “It is always difficult to judge the volume and amount of debris left over without knowing the design of the object, but the logical rule is about 20-40% China launched the Long March 5B in May 2020 to test the vehicle in preparation to send people to the moon, but the mission also ended with an uncontrolled return trip. The Long March 5B rocket entered space on 5 May 2020 and crashed to Earth a few days later, just off the coast of West Africa. This has been confirmed by Space Control Squadron 18, a unit of the US Air Force that tracks space debris in Earth orbit. The force says what’s remarkable not only about the size of the missile but also the extent of its uncontrolled dive zone. Before crashing into waters off the west coast of Mauritania, the rocket core flew over Los Angeles and New York.