Space junk! (Earth, Kessler, new)

[Clarallel]

Litter, litter, everywhere. It would be interesting if our own carelessness wrecked our ability to be out in space.

The Elusive Peril of Space Junk
Millions of human artifacts circle the Earth. Can we clean them up before they cause a disaster?
At NASA, Donald Kessler was the first to grasp that space pollution posed a strange form of high-speed environmental damage. In the worst case, he warned, collisions of debris could trigger one another in an unstoppable cascade—a scenario that became known as the Kessler syndrome.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...-of-space-junk

[Diesel23]

I remember reading an article in the late 80s I think was about the US Air Force using long wavelength radar to image nuts, bolts, gloves, etcetera. The article also mentioned a space shuttle windshield being damaged by an errant drop of urine ice. The Kessler Syndrome will probably happen sooner rather than later. A fair amount of low Earth orbit junk probably de-orbits in spectacular but harmless fashion before causing orbital mayhem as the atmosphere changes size and shape during the day due to uneven heating.