Aanya Shekhar, Enerel Munkhbaatar, Symthasree Koganti
June 11th
Our oceans are littered with various man-made objects such as plastic bags, metal cans, paper, trash, and surprisingly, space debris. While spacecrafts, satellites, and rockets are part of essential research, they have little to no use when returned to Earth. They end up becoming forgotten junk which ends up filling our oceans. An isolated location known as Point Nemo can be a prime example. While many claim Point Nemos is “lifeless” and “uninhabited”, is it still a safe graveyard for space waste?
Point Nemo is an area in the Pacific Ocean off of the coast of New Zealand and Antarctica. It was originally calculated by a survey engineer, Hrvoje Lukatela, who used geospatial technology to discover Point Nemo.
Due to extreme conditions and the lack of natural resources to support human life, this place is completely isolated. In addition this area is beyond legal jurisdiction and it makes Point Nemo a preferable spot to dispose of space debris. Dating back to the 1960s, Point Nemo has been and is still used as a space graveyard by NASA. It has recently come back to light due to plans for the International Space Station’s retirement. NASA plans on dumping the ISS in Point Nemo like previous stations.
While there aren’t any immediate issues with using Point Nemo, it is not a sustainable solution and will eventually overfill. Since 2019, more than 263 pieces of space debris has been landed at this place.
Figure 1: Photograph of Point Nemo (red marker) on Google Maps
So what other alternatives are there? Considering the growing space junk problem, the most desirable outcome is for them to re-enter the Earth. With intense speed and heat, most of the parts gets disintegrated along the way before hitting ground, minimizing its impact on the oceans and on our lands.
Another approach can include actively tracking the large junks and their trajectories so space agencies can take further actions to make sure they do not get accumulated.
It is unfortunate that a fascinating and mysterious parts of our Earth like Point Nemo is being used as a dumping ground for junk instead of being researched and studied for its uniqueness. It raises the questions about the long-term effects of man-made things and the questions of ethics. It is crucial to prioritize the purity of our mother Earth and avoid further pollution.
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