Space Cleaners

Space Cleaners is a documentary of a group of international scientists trying to get a grip on the problem of space debris.

Some 50 years from now, the human race could be incapable of space travel. This is due to nearly 750 000 uncontrolled objects of space debris circulating around earth at a speed of nearly 40 000 km/h. These objects – space junk – possess enough energy to destroy any known spacecraft in the event of a collision. In addition to that, each collision creates numerous uncontrolled objects that aggravate the problem leading to new collisions and an exponential increase of space debris.

This problem, scientifically identified as Kessler syndrome, was originally presented in 1978, but little has been done to stop this phenomenon. Meanwhile, we have become increasingly more dependent on space infrastructure like satellites that have provided us with daily technologies and information including navigation systems, weather forecasts, TV broadcast, phone calls and climate research. But to maintain our daily life as we know it, these space infrastructures will need to be guaranteed, thus a solution to the problem of space debris is needed.