Taha Ferozpuri
Environmental Science
Lab 2 - Science and the Popular Media
The Amount of Space debris orbiting our planet could cause disaster My topic is the title of this report. The four articles are listed below with their citations in the bibliography. 1) THE PROBLEM OF SPACE JUNK – Popular Science magazine author 2) A Hot Shower Of Space Junk – by Bryan Lufkin 3) Chinese Space Junk Puts on a Fireball Show in U.S. Skies – by Alan Boyle (reporter) 4) A mysterious Russian space object could be the return of the ‘satellite killer’ – by Terrence McCoy (reporter)
The Problem of space junk article is from “Popular Science” magazine with multiple authors who worked on this piece, however, the material coming from a well-known magazine is legitimate. A Hot Shower of Space Junk by Bryan Lufkin was from a magazine called “Wired” but neither magazine listed the author’s credentials.
The newspapers have the following authors, Chinese Space Junk was written by Alan Boyle a reporter. And Terrance McCoy wrote the newspaper article about a Russian space object. The first two magazines do not go into great detail of their qualifications for each author, however, the newspaper do give a little more insight into this matter. NBC’s article states, “More than 140 observations were sent in to the American Meteor Society’s website, veteran satellite tracker Ted Molczan wrote. Also, the Washington Post also spoke of their reporter, Terrance McCoy and stated, “Terrence McCoy writes on foreign affairs for The Washington Post's Morning Mix”
The focus of the first article was about the countries that had the most satellites in space, how much debris estimates from each, and the types of debris. The plans or countermeasures were related to US Strategic Command since these authors were from the USA. Article 2 was more informational regarding the types of collisions in the near past and location of each object that impacted the earth. Article 3 described an event that occurred in the US and spoke a small amount of China. The last article was about Russia and biased due to the Cold War.
All tables, charts, and graphs in these articles were in order and displayed information properly. The source of these data was an observatory monitoring low-orbit debris. Most of these writers stressed the dangers of having low-earth orbiting objects. They can cause catastrophe for space shuttles, and if they are big enough they can do damage on earth, not to mention collisions between satellites can occur. The only change that I have had by reading these articles is by understanding that it is possible for another country could intentionally sabotage our satellites, therefore, monitoring what is going on up there and organizing the mess is an urgent matter indeed.
Bibliography
Baggaley, K. The Problem of Space Junk. (2013, 12). Popular Science, 283, 56. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1468924824?accountid=27655
Boyle, A. (2015, February 25). Chinese Space Junk Puts on a Fireball Show in U.S. Skies from http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/chinese-space-junk-puts-fireball-show-u-s-skies-n312006
Lufkin, B. (2013, 11). A hot shower of space junk. Wired, 21, 62-n/a. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1466585082?accountid=27655
McCoy T. (2014, November 18). A mysterious Russian space object could be the return of the ‘satellite killer from http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/11/18/a-mysterious-russian-space-object-revives-speculation-about-satellite-killer/
