The Space Debris Problem

A spire The Space Debris Problem SMALL SATELLITES Are clean and green Will go to low earth orbit (LEO) Then, essentially, vaporize neatly upon reentry NO SPACE DEBRIS RISK All cubesats in orbit currently account for 0.000000204% 369 kg Surface Area of Cubesats as a Percentage of Total Satellite Surface Area and 5.24 square meters Have the lowest collision risk Short time before Small size harmlessly burning up LARGE GEO SATELLITES Could be in orbit longer than humanity survives Leaving almost infinite opportunity for becoming space debris As of 2013 7% 93% of space objects bigger than 10 cm Space debris were operational A single collision of two large geostationary satellites created more cubesat-sized space debris than the total number of cubesats that have ever been launched and 10x more than are currently in orbit. US air force weather satellite explosion Chinese weather Iridium-Cosmo satellite explosion collision 3,000 1,500 50 new debris larger than 10cm new debris new debris larger than 10cm larger than 10cM Most rockets carrying satellite up to orbit leave their entire second stage in orbit. Small satellites are the electric cars of satellites. Clean and green. Each satellite is active for 2-years before we decommission it by harmlessly disintegrating it in Earth's atmosphere. It is replaced with newer, better technology. Dust to dust. We design and build spacecraft in less time than most companies. We keep our satellites packed with the freshest processors and sensors. A spire Open The Future