If the accumulation rate space debris continues as before, there is 10% chance about one of these pieces of debris falling on someone on Earth in the next decade. This is the conclusion of a study published in 2022. There were people at the time who thought this was an exaggeration. But when Florida man After seeing a large piece of metal crash through the two-story roof of his home and nearly hit his son, he discovered that this was not such a rare possibility.
All this happened in the past March 8. Home owner, Alejandro Oteroposted what happened on X (formerly Twitter), immediately attracting attention POT. Otero outlined his own hypothesis in his publication. He said the piece of space debris that fell so close to his son could have been part of a tray of old batteries ejected from space. International Space Station (ISS). On the same day, it was supposed to burn up above the atmosphere, turning into fragments that would not harm anyone.
If he had hit his son, it would have caused him great pain. Besides, Material damage At home it’s more than clear. This would rule out the predictions being made, but time is ticking, so NASA contacted Otero to take the piece and examine it in their laboratories. What happens if it is confirmed that this is space debris from the ISS?
Space debris mitigation responsibilities
If it is confirmed that the object that ended up in Otero’s house is space debris, we will have to look for responsibilities. Someone needs to take care of the damage to your home.
The problem is that if it is confirmed that this is the same tray with old batteries, there will be two possible candidates. The batteries used on the International Space Station belong to NASA. However, the pallet structure from which it came off was discarded JAXAJapanese Space Agency.
It will be necessary to analyze which of the two space agencies bears more responsibility for the accident. Either way, both are more than willing to take on the renovations. This was already discussed when the 2022 study was published. This is much more beneficial for space agencies. pay compensation than to care about the space junk they produce. Despite this, some exercise more control than others over the waste they produce. NASA and JAXA are monitoring possible re-entries, but it can always happen, as in this case. It was known that this space-launched pallet would return to Earth on March 8, 2021, but what was not expected was that the pieces of space debris would be so large that they would cross two floors of a house.
As far as possible, the illness was not as serious as expected, but it will certainly take Alejandro Otero and his son a long time to forget the day they came very close to becoming the feared 10%.
Source: Hiper Textual
