On September 22, the International Space Station (ISS) performed a very dangerous maneuver to avoid a collision from a small piece of space junk. According to NASA, there could be more than 170 million pieces of space junks in the earth’s orbit, and it ranges from damaged rockets to malfunctioned satellites.

Amid this chaos, SpaceX founder Elon Musk, launched its 14th group of 60 satellites from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, as part of the Starlink Broadband project.

After the Sunday’s launch, the number of Starlink satellites in the earth’s orbit became 800. According to Starlink, the ultimate aim of the company is to deploy 42,000 satellites on the earth’s orbit. SpaceX claims that the aim of these Starlink satellites is to provide high-speed internet in all nooks of the world.

Even though Elon Musk’s Starlink project is receiving positive responses from all corners, a section of astronomers believes that this rise in the number of satellites could negatively affect stargazing, and may even trap humans on the earth.

A few months back, the Royal Astronomical Society had expressed their concern over the rising number of Starlink constellations in the low-earth orbit.

“The Royal Astronomical Society notes with concern the launch of the new SpaceX Starlink constellation of satellites into low-Earth orbit, and the potential impact of this and other programs on views of the night sky and on astronomical research. Increasing the number of satellites so significantly presents a challenge to ground-based astronomy,” said the Royal Astronomical Society, in a recent statement.

Several space scientists also suggest that thousands of satellites in the earth’s orbit may trap humans, and could even affect future space missions, as humans are now trying to broaden their horizon to emerge as a multi-planetary species.

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“I think it’s really important for everybody to vote. If we can do it from space, then I believe folks can do it from the ground, too. It’s critical to participate in our democracy. It’s critical to participate in our democracy. We consider it an honor to be able to vote from space,” Rubins told AFP.

It should be noted that most of the NASA astronauts hail from Houston and Texas is offering a secured electronic ballet system to cast their votes.

Rubins is not the first astronaut to cast votes from space. Earlier, another astronaut named Shane Kimbrough had cast votes from the International Space Station.

Rubins is one of the key members of NASA in the International Space Station, as she is the first person to do DNA sequencing on space. In her upcoming trip, she is expected to work on a cardiovascular experiment and will conduct research using the ISS’s Cold Atom Lab.

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It was on September 22 that the International Space Station (ISS) performed an avoidance manoeuver to avoid a collision from small space junk. Soon after the incident, Nasa revealed that the manoeuver was made possible by a joint operation by the Russian and US flight controllers, and the space agency urged better management of space debris to world countries. And now, a new report has suggested that 75 per cent of space debris in the space is unknown objects.

The new study suggested that satellite-threatening debris in the high-earth orbit is not tracked closely enough, and it could negatively impact the functioning of satellites that are responsible for serving multifarious things on the earth that includes navigation, communication, and weather services.

Human-made trash has been steadily increasing in the orbit since the 1950s as it was during this time that humans started launching satellites. According to space experts, orbital debris comprises old, defunct satellites and, rockets that were used to take these satellites to the earth’s orbit.

“It’s important that we continue to observe the geosynchronous region with large telescopes wherever possible, to start to build up a more complete feel for the faint debris environment. With this survey, we’ve probed deeper than ever before, and still, the population appears to be climbing as our sensitivity limit is reached. While we’re dealing with small number statistics here, it’s unsurprising that we see many more small, faint objects than large, bright ones,” said James Blake, a PhD student at the University of Warwick Department of Physics and the lead author of the study.

A few months back, the International Astronomical Union had slammed Elon Musk’s Starlink project, claiming that the rising number of satellites on earth’s orbit could affect star gazing. Some other space experts believe that increased space debris could trap humans on the earth, as they will be unable to conduct deep space missions in the future due to these rising trash.

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It was in the 1960s and 1970s that Nasa, the United States space agency, landed humans on the moon. These missions suggested that humans could stay safely on the Moon for a few days without any problems. However, Nasa did not measure the daily space radiation that hits the moon’s surface. And now, a team of scientists, using the data provided by China’s Chang’e 4 lander, has unveiled the space radiation level in earth’s natural satellite.

According to the new study report, the radiation in the Moon is two to three times higher than the radiation received in the International Space Station (ISS). This is mainly due to the partial protection ISS is receiving from the earth’s magnetosphere. Interestingly, the radiation received on the moon is 200 times higher when compared to the space radiation that hits the earth’s surface.

“The radiation of the Moon is between two and three times higher than what you have on the ISS (International Space Station). So that limits your stay to approximately two months on the surface of the Moon,” Robert Wimmer-Schweingruber, co-author of the study told a news agency.

The new study report comes at a time when the United States is planning to land humans on the moon in 2024. The study report is alarming, and it has made many people believe that NASA is putting the life of astronauts at risk by sending them to the moon again.

Recently, astro-biologist Samantha Rolfe had also expressed similar concerns, and she had claimed that upcoming Mars colonisation missions could turn suicidal, as the Red Planet does not have a magnetosphere of its own.

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