# How much of a real threat is the Kessler syndrome **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 27, 2017, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-a-real-threat-is-the-kessler-syndrome/805372 "2017-12-27T06:02:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 14
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-a-real-threat-is-the-kessler-syndrome/805372/14 "2017-12-27T19:57:42Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > This seems like a “[Tragedy of the Commons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons)” type of problem. Every actor can contribute to the debris but no one restrains them or cleans up after them. Well, except it is going to be everyone’s problem if nations and corporations involved in space industries don’t address it. Big telecomm and weather satellites in GTO and GSO are high enough that it is unlikely that they will be threatened by random debris fields, but anything in MEO or lower could potentially be affected by debris from an impact event at that altitude or higher, including GPS and GLONASS satellites, lower or eccentric orbit surveillance and communications satellites, and of course all of the small sats operators anticipating working in LEO in what is poised to be a massive new multibillion dollar industry of tracking and commercial marine and aviation surveillance. And once it starts happening, it will continuously cascade until the debris is removed, either by natural processes of the drag of tenuous molecular atmosphere or by some deliberate method of removing debris that has yet to be worked out practically. This may be compounded if measures aren’t taken now to prevent the militarization of orbital space, and effort that China has been undertaking in earnest for the last decade. Stranger --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-a-real-threat-is-the-kessler-syndrome/805372)._