... Hope is not enough. SpaceX and other companies, as well as governments, are producing space debris that could very easily kill people. Countries need to enforce the rules that already exist, and regulations need to be updated to account for the unprecedented numbers of launches and reentries now occurring.
The hundreds of pounds of space debris that fell near my home were a clear warning. To avoid disaster, the nations of the world must heed it, and catch up with the reality of today’s commercialization of orbit before it’s too late.
This is an opinion and analysis article, and the views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those of Scientific American.
Samantha Lawler is an associate professor of astronomy at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, Canada, where she researches orbital dynamics and teaches. She lives on a farm, raising goats and cherishing the huge prairie sky.
