Last month, a private satellite tracking company spotted a Chinese spacecraft apparently grabbing and throwing a dead satellite away into a “graveyard” orbit. Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com)
Space junk is a problem. Earth’s sky is getting crowded with defunct craft and the bits and pieces shed when satellites are launched. Also with debris from collisions and even tools lost by astronauts. Millions of pieces of trash share orbits with only 5,000 functioning satellites. It’s getting crowded up there.
It may even become difficult to tell the difference between accidents that disable satellites and attacks.
Sounds like trouble for the space industry, but a great place for a scifi story. I’m sending pilots into orbit to collect junk with robotic drones, at least, I am with a science fiction trilogy. They’ll deal with accidents and attacks, a lunar base and space station, colonists and mercenaries. Will they defeat the villain behind it all? Will they even discover the culprit once they’re targeted for assassination?
It’ll be several months before you can find out, so subscribe to my newsletter and don’t miss out on the trilogy’s release. And receive a free award-winning collection of short fantasy and scifi stories for kindle today.