At 48°52.6′ South latitude and 123°23.6′ West longitude is the so-called pole of inaccessibility of the Pacific, a place so remote that it is also called point Nemo (which means nobody, in Latin). .
Specifically, the nearest land mass is 2,688 kilometers away, and there are more than 3,500 that separate it from the nearest settlement. There is a paradox that the humans that come closest are the astronauts of the International Space Station when they transit above, 400 kilometers high in Earth orbit.
The extremely remote position, together with the depth that the ocean reaches in the region (up to 3,700 meters), has turned this location into the favorite space debris graveyard for space agencies.
When an inoperative satellite or spacecraft section (such as the upper stage of a rocket) returns to Earth, the object fragments due to friction with the atmosphere, with smaller pieces falling apart. completely incinerate without reaching the surface. However, if the ship is large, some of the fragments may survive the fall and hit the ground.
On many occasions, the objects that return do not have any propulsion mechanism that allows directing their trajectory, so that the fragments that do not burn fall in previously selected locations. But when it is possible to control the entry into the atmosphere of a spacecraft, the space agency or the corporation that owns it must decide the destination of the space debris that will be generated.
In any case, some of the main space agencies are adopting zero space debris generation policies, such as the European agency (ESA), which has committed to this goal by 2030.
Although the exact location of the Pacific pole of inaccessibility was calculated by the Croatian engineer Hrvoje Lukatela in 1992, as early as the early 1970s the place was selected by some space agencies as a destination point for large fragments of spacecraft. Thus, some of the residents of Point Nemo are the orbital stations of the space programs of the former Soviet Union, and later Russia, such as the Salyut (1971 to 1986) and the iconic MIR station (which was submerged in this place the year 2001).
Currently, in the depths of Point Nemo are the remains of almost 300 ships of various nationalities, including fragments of the North American Skylab station. The site will also receive the International Space Station when it reaches the end of its useful life. It is the largest structure that has been built in space, and NASA has already detailed how the drop maneuver will be carried out from the year 2031.
Although Point Nemo is currently the preferred choice for directing the drop of ships, it is not always a viable option. Its location is ideal for equatorial-type orbits, that is, vehicles that circulate following the orientation of the planet's equator. But not for those that orbit in polar trajectories (perpendicular to the equator).
This has been the case of ESA's Aeolus satellite, which fell to Earth on July 28 after four and a half years of mission. As stated by the head of the European agency's space debris control office, Holger Krag, at the press conference held a few days before the operation, the polar orbit of the satellite made it impossible to consider Nemo as the destination point, and therefore For this reason, a safety corridor was chosen above Antarctica to perform an assisted fall.
According to ESA data, it is currently estimated that there are one million fragments larger than one centimeter in size in orbit around our planet, and about 130 million with measurements between one millimeter and one centimeter, in addition to some 2,200 inoperative satellites. .
Although the volume of space is enormous, the issue of space debris is especially worrying due to the consequences that its collision with operational satellites can cause. In addition, the International Space Station has had to maneuver on more than one occasion to avoid getting too close to a potentially dangerous object.
In 1997, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of the United States detected a surprising very low frequency sound that seemed to come from the vicinity of Point Nemo. The sound, baptized as "Bloop", lasted one minute and was captured from about 5,000 kilometers away.
At that time, the phenomenon gave rise to all kinds of speculation, some of them fantastic, coinciding with the fact that Point Nemo is relatively close to the place that the writer H.P. Lovecraft chose as the home of the fictional monster Cthulhu. Finally, in 2021 the mystery could be solved: the sound had been produced by the fragmentation of ice masses in the Antarctic Ocean.
