Space debris problem highlighted in new series of photographs

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NEW CLOUDS ABOVE US The modern world relies on satellites for its communications and commerce. While mostly invisible to us as we go about out daily lives, our entire modern way of living ? both socially and professionally ? is intimately linked with the orbital space around the Earth. How we treat this extraterrestrial environment will determine how much we can rely on it in the future. ?In this view of Greenwich, London, you?ve got examples of what?s in space. I photographed about 300 artefacts ranging from satellites to rocket bodies, satellite parts, solar panels, all the way down to the screws and a glove to show what?s up there. The photography was done over a one year period, across North America, Europe and the UK. I wanted to show this from a human perspective ? from the ground looking up. I chose Greenwich because of its history of astronomy and because from there you can see the financial district of London to highlight the modern world?s connection to the satellites that circle Earth.? Max Alexander

A view of Greenwich in London with a montage of examples of house particles

Max Alexander

THESE photos aren’t only a whimsical assortment of house memorabilia. A part of Our Fragile House: Defending the near-space atmosphere, an exhibition by photographer Max Alexander, they spotlight a rising downside: rising quantities of particles are orbiting Earth in the identical area of house as 1000’s of satellites, heightening the danger of collisions.

DELTA STAGE 2 FUEL TANK Launched in April 1996, this fuel tank re-entered the Earth?s atmosphere and landed near a Texas farmhouse in January 1997. Metallurgical analysis indicates that it reached a temperature of around 1300?C during re-entry. There are 15 small craters on this tank, made by the impact of micrometeoroids and space debris. A few impacts even penetrated the tank wall.

Gasoline tank from the second stage of a Delta rocket

Max Alexander

Alexander collaborated with astronomy author Stuart Clark, the College of Warwick, UK, and its Centre for House Area Consciousness, amongst others, to attract consideration to the influence of the some 160 million items of cosmic waste circling Earth – all of which have human-made origins.

CHILBOLTON CONTROL ROOM, HAMPSHIRE, UK Station Manager Darcy Ladd and Emal Rumi look out over the main dish at the Chilbolton observatory, the UK?s main civilian satellite and debris tracking facility. Alongside monitoring the space environment, the observatory performs a wide range of scientific endeavours, including astronomy, atmospheric science and radiocommunications.

Management room of Chilbolton Observatory,

Max Alexander

The photographs present: a gasoline tank from the second stage of a Delta rocket that returned to Earth in 1997, with craters from impacts with house particles and micrometeorites; the management room of Chilbolton Observatory, the primary UK facility for monitoring civilian satellites and house particles;

SPACE DEBRIS FROM ARIANE 4 ROCKET Cerise was a French military reconnaissance satellite, launched in 1995 on an Ariane 4 rocket. A year later it was struck by a piece of space debris. The impact severed a boom arm that helped stabilise the spacecraft. This accident was the first verified collision between an active satellite and a piece of space debris. This piece of the Ariane 4 is from the National Air and Space Museum of France?s collection.

Pictured above is a bit of an Ariane 4 rocket, which launched a satellite tv for pc in 1995 that was later concerned within the first verified satellite-debris collision; a puncture made in an aluminium plate by a plastic projectile travelling at excessive velocity, as a part of a research into the consequences of impacts at orbital velocity (pictured beneath);

PLASTIC INTO METAL This aluminium plate has been punctured by a plastic projectile. While the aluminium is stronger than the plastic, the damage is done because of the energy carried in the speeding projectile. The movement energy of a small object is mostly determined by its speed, and when the speed is kilometres per second, the energy is enormous. This is released on impact, creating the equivalent of a small explosion. This piece is part of Donald Kessler?s private collection.

A view of Greenwich in London (most important image) with a montage of examples of house particles superimposed on the sky; and pictured beneath, an astronaut’s glove dropped throughout a spacewalk from the Gemini IV mission in 1965.

GLOVES IN SPACE Not all space debris is composed of broken rockets and dead satellites. Occasionally astronauts drop things overboard as well. A spacesuit glove similar to this one was lost during a space walk from the Gemini IV mission in 1965. It had been left in the airlock, so when a fully suited Ed White opened the exterior door to make his way outside, the glove floated off as well. Estimates suggest that it spent a month orbiting the Earth before re-entering and burning up.

Our Fragile House will run at Coventry Cathedral, UK, from 6 to 21 Could; on the Vienna Worldwide Centre in Austria from 31 Could to 9 June; then at Jodrell Financial institution, UK, from 12 June to mid-September.

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