BlockchainArmy Plans to Manage Space Debris Through Blockchain; Launches SOS Program

At the UN Geneva Meeting 2019, the President and Co-Founder of BlockchainArmy, Erol User, has urged all the institutions, governments, as well as the private sector corporations to join in the initiative called S.O.S, short for Save Our Space. The initiative is meant for beginning an organized space waste management.

In his speech at the meeting that was held in Geneva, Switzerland on December 14, 2019, Erol User said that now is the time for all of us to begin cooperating “to guarantee economically vital spaceflight” to facilitate innovative service offerings for the citizens along with future space developments. Continuing further, the founder-president stated that we need to keep up the dream of future exploration while also combining continual technological development and environmental awareness.

The Amazing Space and the Not So Amazing Space-litter

Not much needs to be said when it comes to how attracted humans have been towards space since the beginning of time. It has always been a very exciting element and has attracted several explorations from humanity through spacecraft, rockets, satellites, etc. The intentional or accidental explosion of space objects, flecks of paints from the space objects, residual elements from the space missions, etc., all end up floating at very high speed into an orbit that surrounds our earth called the “Low Earth Orbit” or LEO. For instance, deliberate destruction of the Chinese Fengyun-1C spacecraft in 2007 and the accidental collision of an American and a Russian spacecraft in 2009, as per NASA’s reports are two of the main reasons why the LEO is turning into a space garbage orbit. The report revealed that these two incidents have dominated LEO’s space debris levels by approximately 70%.

Over the years, these leftover space objects have contributed to space junk or space debris. Space Debris is a growing issue for humankind today, which can have its claws dug deep into the future generations.

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Why is Space Debris So Dangerous?

• Environmental Threat: Space debris is environmentally bad as we are leaving unnatural objects in space. Eventually, the satellites will need to come down into the earth’s atmosphere, which poses a high possibility of them burning into flames. A much worse scenario is dealing with the leftover fuel in those space satellites leading them to blast in the earth’s atmosphere. Are we prepared for such a future, with the current position of the thinning ozone layer?
• The Ever-Increasing Expensive Space Pollution: For simple purposes such as communication and weather reports, human-made satellites are orbiting around the earth in the geostationary orbit, which is 35000 km from the earth. These satellites are usually blasted into a “graveyard orbit,” which is around 36000 km above the earth. In the past, the blasting episodes were less and manageable, but with the growing technology, space pollution is only becoming a burdening issue.
• The Dreadful Space Collision Possibilities: The space debris which is floating in the LEO is racing in orbit at speeds as high as 18000 miles per hour. Just imagine how prone to accidents and collisions our future space exploration spaceships, rockets, and other satellites can be!

Researchers from Australia are currently monitoring approximately 29000 pieces of space junk and have raised a red flag of space collisions possibility. There is a huge danger of collision dangling on the satellites that are worth billions of dollars. The danger will only increase with time, as more and more satellites are sent by more and more countries now and then.

Taming the Space Debris “cleanup and prevention challenge” Will Be a Great Feat to Achieve!

• NASA’s Endeavors to Prevent and Clear-up the Space Debris: Since 1979, NASA, through its Orbital Debris Program, is trying to lessen the creation of orbital debris and has been working to create equipment that can help in removing the space junk.
• Endeavors From Australia’s “Electro Optic Systems” in Collaboration With the US: Electro Optic Systems is Australia’s aerospace technology company. Chief executive and technical director of the company, Professor Craig Smith, with his team of talented and dedicated scientists and engineers, and with close working with the US, are continuously trying to come up with a “high-powered, high-precision laser” as per reports. This laser is being created at the Space Environment Research Centre in the country. The ambition is to push away the space junk out of the way to prevent space collisions. Another use-case of the laser set-up can be of destroying the space junks eventually. The laser is expected to be fully functional in the coming three years. The professor further adds,

“The issue is, we have to be able to project the laser beam through the atmosphere without it being dispersed. […] It is challenging. The atmospheric turbulence causes the beam to disperse rather than stay focused on target, so the number of photons landing on the target is reduced, which means we can’t propel it as far.”

• Possible Black-out for the Entire Telecommunication Industry: The entire telecommunication industry, at present, relies on the satellites up in space. These satellites consume a lot of fuel and other resources. Being expensive to maintain, the possibility of them going offline can pose serious issues in terms of replacement and other costs involved. It can very easily lead to a black-out of the entire telecommunication industry. On this, Professor Smith from Electro-Optic Systems, an Australian aerospace technology company said-
• It is a serious issue. We have oceans and rivers, and we pollute them until they become almost unusable. We have done exactly the same with space. We have left junk everywhere.”
• 6000 Tons Worth of World’s Largest Garbage Dump: The space debris in LEO has unfortunately become the World’s largest garbage dump. An approximation from NASA’s reports says that there are about 6000 tons of space debris materials orbiting in the LEO.
• Strong Collaboration From All the Countries is Required: Space programs are generally very expensive for any nation, so imagine how much effort and money it will demand to clean up the World’s largest garbage dump! Cleaning up the LEO will indeed call upon strong collaboration from all the countries on the planet earth.
• The Moral Duty of One and All: LEO’s clean-up challenge is not the sole responsibility of one country. Any country which intends to explore the wonderful space in current times, or the future should shoulder the responsibility. More than the usability factor, it is our environmental responsibility too to leave a healthy planet and space for the generations to come.

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Walking the Talk Through BlockchainArmy’s “Save Our Space (SOS)” Organization:

The Co –Founder and Chairman of BlockchainArmy, Erol User recently shared his views on the topic-

“I would like to bring debris into blockchain and do it as a social responsibility program. Therefore, I want to have an organization Save Our Space (SOS). I would like to have participation from all around to raise money.”

Erol User has a very interesting viewpoint on possibilities and challenges. It reflects in his statement,

“You see things as they are, and you say, “Why? But I dream things that never were, and I say, Why not?”

BlockchainArmy’s Chairman is very active in philanthropic activities that lift the society a notch higher with every effort. He has been seen supporting causes such as environmental causes, rights of the children, ethics in the economy, and so on.

BlockchainArmy is an international venture and capital advisory firm. Recently, the firm participated in the UN Geneva  Meeting. There Erol User shared his views on the possibilities, benefits of the blockchain technology, and the unexplored potential of the blockchain technology through his speech. In the speech, he touched upon topics such as the need for- “a secure, low-latency digital infrastructure” for the internet, which blockchain can very much provide. He expressed his confidence in the blockchain technology’s potential despite it being in its formative years.

The blockchain supporter also understands that good thing take time. While supporting the blockchain technology, he further added,

“Blockchain is not a “disruptive” technology — it is a foundational technology. Blockchain has the potential to create new foundations for our economic and social systems.”

So, Is There Any Hope?

It will be too pessimistic to straight-up blurt, “no, there is no hope,” and it will be too optimistic about throwing in a quick answer “yes, of course, there is hope!” The answer to this question lies in what we chose to do. The future of the present space condition is not fixed. It is both good news and the bad one.  The openness of this question can be frightening if we continue to lead our lives selfishly without thinking of future generations and the future of our mother earth. On the other hand, the openness of this question offers a ray of hope through which we can learn from our past mistakes, mend our habits and ways.

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