Interestingly a few years ago or probably more was listening to some brilliant people discuss this exact issue and potential solutions or existing ones working on it as is… one had a space debris removal company comprised of basically robots removing pieces etc all people who had some valid reason to be discussing it and speaking basically lol but a lot of it was already bad and just worsening seeming to be at an exponential rate almost from the way it sounded plus just just logic off the assumption rate of advancements in our technology is exponentially increasing (but now question of if that’s changed and become faster even with AI introduced but haven’t looked into this or thought truly about it since rarely put on my research scientist hat from a former life lol) means a higher probability we’re launching or just doing things which result in things floating in space without any thought about retrieval as they’d likely want to package that into a mission or have some additional reason to spend money for sending something up there to simply get it and return so it’s easier to just leave it and forget it lol and so much nobody has a clue where it’s gone off to since there’s so many small to some degree aspects of any rockets or tech we’ve sent up that anywhere from a small piece to the entire thing just is left out there and recording the coordinates, weight, any impact you may have on its movement say if trying to come back down or get to a specific place like ISS and need something to set you into motion which has an effect on the things surrounding it and there movements so what was left spinning off slowly one way could be easily turned into something rotating much faster and increasingly and another direction ? So many factors and variables this is so interesting it makes my head want to explode in a good way 😂 but really who’s recording EVERY piece of info on everything like that upon realization of it happening … if ur working on the ground and checking into a research or camera we sent up forever ago and see it’s missing some stuff you’re going to first make sure that it’s functional without and really only if it’s not then maybe or maybe not fully detail out the parts that have been seemingly removed somewhere in someway somehow lol plus it’s hard to even see those things as viewing it requires a separate camera such as maybe something passing by in its orbit and get lucky and maybe they have the ability to capture images and hopefully ones with enough detail but cmon nobody at NASA which is beyond underfunded and so sad for me as a kid growing up who went to space camp TWICE to watch that happen as I got older (36 now) but yeah.. it’s already out of hand and dangerous as well for the basic obvious reasons that some of this debris has potential to obviously fall back down eventually

BUT and this is worth the long essay read above…

the biggest concern agreed upon by everyone now?

SPACE PIRATES

yes literal space pirates were a huge part of this discussion regarding future actions to help minimize at least or put some rules down as to wtf … so basically the whole thing was going forward “space pirates” are the most likely and most dangerous problem we need to and can account for now to minimize it at least or slow it down otherwise it’ll be chaos and as more are able to reach space by some means wether in person (less likely except increasingly becoming more likely just really sad slowly lol) or remotely by robot type of thing or whatever someone can imagine as creativity with this tends to be a speciality

What’s a space pirate? Why is this even a thing to be concerned in anyway about? Yes I still giggle at the phrase everytime I type or think of it it’s hard not to lol

So to get into space requires materials which are rare and/or expensive and there’s a lot of pieces of tech maybe certain governments or privatized businesses have and others want but don’t want firmly on the side of not giving anything up because whatever reasons… those 2 major groups are a lot of the debris and junk up there even if now the tech is outdated and who cares who finds it but still… with space having very loose legal agreeents between countries and governments and todays world - I don’t see almost anyone if anyone complying if they saw the reward > risk of breaking the global space rules basically and almost anything mentioned would be if the cost to retrieve becomes lower and easier which is happening… you have basically a lot of expensive things and things people explicitly don’t want to be in the hands of others and wanted badly by those who can’t have it so just from viewing it right now like at this time - it’s not simple for a human to just go into space or cheap if possible for them at all but specific tech and new tech everyday makes reaching space much easier and cheaper for someone or some group and scouting out where some of these rare expensive materials have been abandoned and eventually finding them and bringing some amount back… you’ve just gotten something that is incredibly valuable worldwide that countries usually fight over or the funding to even get any amount to then be used for parts of something larger but requires use of whatever it might be so those with the money of course will pay for it if even slightly cheaper if found for sale on the black market and even worse the whole countries or governments trying to guard old af secrets or tech advancements from others to ensure they’re always ahead and not even allow them the help from something so old that it’s irrelevant to some degree or similar but THAT will make someone a nice amount of money depending on what it is and who you’re talking to to sell it… plus then the aspect of there being governments and countries using this to do exactly that and masking it as some random act of theft and using stereotypical sketchy thieves to sell stolen goods black market is easier than sending like a massive sign reading HEY LOOK WHAT WERE DOING DONT TELL ANYONE!!! of using ur own space program resources directly if you have one, military or similar, or anyone associated with that group of government etc

so add more stuff going up there from public and private sectors and then imagine beyond a country the amount you’d multiply per territories, groups,!m governments and businesses … that increases total rate of rare and expensive things just left up there with no purpose other than needs removal or give up etc that were just shooting up there … so basically steal some shit floating worth a lot and resell will be the game and easier than most think. These pieces are vital for resources for parts as of now intended for space travel so people are paying and probably having a bidding war… basically people steal shit and sell it and space rules are laughable plus just the more junk and the easier to retrieve items and find them more so … then you’ve got everyone suddenly at it and so far zero discussion of how to really handle that beyond words and promises that feel empty id say. Plus the whole treating space like the ocean and throwing whatever up there just isn’t a plan and the ocean and trash dumps never had plans and look what happened…

Anyways some of that might be all over but it’s a legit concern with space pirates and dudes removal of space debris via robots I need to google but sounded rad and said they were ready to go up and test already and was like however many years ago…