Space Film Junkie: Orbital Debris in Wall-E, Gravity, and Space Sweepers
Liza Fust, Communications Coordinator
5 minute read
Coming soon to home movie nights near you — space debris in your living room! Not really, there are only a few noted instances of space debris actually surviving the return trip through the atmosphere and hitting a house or human (that said, it’s just another one of those things you’re never quite safe from, ask Lottie). You might be wondering more about this ‘orbital debris’ KMI keeps yammering on about, but also maybe it’s late and you don’t feel like doing research right then. Enter: Wall-E, Gravity, and Space Sweepers, all movies with depictions of space debris. “Well, there you go,” you might say to yourself, “three options for me and the kids to be entertained and learn about this junk KMI keeps talking about.” Well, we prefer the term ‘debris.’ “Fine,” you might reply, “anyway, how factual are these movies about space junk - er, debris - anyway?” Have no fear! Your neighborhood KMI film junkies are here! Read on to see what Wall-E, Gravity, and Space Sweepers got right, got wrong, and predicted about orbital debris.
Wall-E (2008)
The inaccuracy I would like to address first is Sputnik (which can be seen stuck to Wall-E’s face after passing through the debris ring and assuming it is actually Sputnik-1 and not any of the 40 other Sputniks that launched after it) - anyway Sputnik-1 would not have been in orbit still because it deorbited in 1958. The film Wall-E represents debris as flotsam around Earth, just sort of chilling there. Real debris is not so chill, but careens around Earth. It is this speed that makes debris so dangerous, arming the smallest object with enough force to damage or demolish whatever it collides with. If the debris in Wall-E were accurately moving in orbits, and considering the amount of debris shown, a veritable sand storm of destructive debris would shred Wall-E’s ship (and our favorite little robot) into as much sand-sized debris. Thank goodness for bending the laws of reality to benefit films because I would not want to see that in theaters.
In Wall-E, Earth has become a wasteland filled with the garbage remnants of rampant consumerism that grew to the point of choking out life on the planet. As Wall-E leaves Earth, we see the same situation in space: debris choking out the sustainable use of Earth’s orbits. That’s called Kessler Syndrome, as more objects are in orbit and those objects collide a cascade of collisions ensues, potentially cutting off any use of orbit. In 2008 when Wall-E was released, there were 11,821 objects in orbit. Today, there are over 33,500. Wall-E is set over 700 years in the future, but already the cascade of collisions that could block out humanity’s use of space has begun and it won’t take several hundred years to make space unusable.
If this much debris was left in orbit for 700 years without humans adding any more, the physics work out to create a neat ring of debris, rather than a cloud. But we don’t want to wait 700 years because what are we going to do in the interim?
Gravity (2013)
In Gravity, Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are on a routine space walk from their shuttle to service the Hubble Space Telescope when Russia blows up a defunct satellite, causing a massive cloud of debris which separates them from their craft. Hm. Far fetched? Nah.
A 2021 spacewalk for two astronauts on the ISS was canceled due to a close encounter with debris generated after Russia conducted an anti-satellite (ASAT) test.
In Gravity their space walk was already in progress at the time of the ASAT test and thankfully in real life there was enough advance warning to postpone the space walk. Now there are processes for Debris Avoidance Maneuvers (DAM) for shuttles and the ISS. What Gravity highlights is that debris generation can be spontaneous whether through uncommunicated ASAT tests, rapid unexpected disassembly, or collisions. It also highlights that some international cooperation and codes of behavior would be a good idea.
Something that Gravity seemingly got right was the representation of debris collision speed. The gut-wrenching fear that grips the audience as debris comes hurtling through the astronauts’ immediate surroundings is an appropriate level of terror to inspire. However, the speeds at which those objects are traveling in the movie are actually something like 70 times slower than the actual average speed of real-life orbital debris objects, which travel at 17,000 mph. So in its own movie-ified way, Gravity did a swell job of presenting the terrifying reality of debris.
The Gravity storyline counts down to when the debris completes its orbit and continues to cause mass destruction. That’s pretty accurate for the debris in orbit now. Unless some awesome team were out there to catch that debris, keeping space clear for all… (commercial break over).
Space Sweepers (2021)
Space Sweepers is a film that follows a team of, well, space sweepers, who collect orbital debris and sell it to the Company which has created an orbital home as a refuge for the elite while most everyone else is stuck on an increasingly uninhabitable Earth. In the course of collecting debris the space sweepers catch a car and find a child inside. That’s all I’ll say about that, just go watch the movie. Instead let’s talk about selling debris. In summation, it’s not a thing. Yet. We keep talking about needing to collect debris, and that there is a budding industry for In-Space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (ISAM) (AKA recycling centers in space). But here’s the thing - someone still owns those debris pieces. Some operators launched it from some country, at some time. It may be junk but it’s their junk. Instead, those countries and operators can hire space sweepers, I mean orbital debris removal companies, to track and collect specific debris pieces. And then, at their directive, deorbit it so the debris burns up on reentry in the atmosphere or deliver it to an ISAM facility. Space Sweepers just had it a little backwards. But then, by the time Earth is uninhabitable and the elite create their own orbital sanctuary, maybe things will have changed.
Okay, now are you ready for your next movie night? I recommend some cosmic brownies or star crunch as a thematic snack. Here at KMI, the team sometimes likes to sit down together and watch a team movie screening. We live in a time where the fiction we grew up with in Star Trek and the history we learned from Apollo 13 are coming together. Hopefully we don’t have a Space Sweepers future - I’m not an elite and I like my nice habitable town which just so happens to be located on Earth. Watching movies, fiction or not, can help us look to the future and all of the ‘what if?’s we wonder about when we ask ‘so what comes next?’ For KMI, what comes next is taking action to protect the space environment so Earthlings, astronauts, the Earth, robots, etc. can all stay safe. Also, more movie nights.
Recommended column to read next: What Can We Do with Orbital Debris?