"Securing a conversation with Leonidas Askianakis requires foresight. His schedule is carved into 30-minute slots from 5 a.m. until 11 p.m. Meetings are online only, and every one of them revolves around space. Despite the long hours, his calendar is booked weeks ahead. When does he sleep? The 22-year-old student from the Technical University of Munich in Germany shrugs when confronted with the question during a recent interview with DW, saying that he's "on the home stretch" and just can't "set the project aside.""
"The European Space Agency (ESA) estimates more than 1.2 million objects larger than one centimeter (0.39 inches) in orbit, including over 50,000 bigger than 10 centimeters. "Between 700 and 800 kilometers [434 miles to 497 miles] in altitude we're seeing massive debris clouds that will remain for centuries and can multiply through collisions," Jan Siminski of ESA's Space Debris team in Darmstadt, Germany, told DW."
Leonidas Askianakis is a 22-year-old Technical University of Munich student running Project-S with tightly scheduled online meetings and funding from public sources and venture capital. He is obsessed with space debris, often awake reviewing reports about a Chinese mission encountering fragments. Thousands of tons of debris circle Earth, including retired satellites, spent rocket stages, and shards. The European Space Agency estimates more than 1.2 million objects larger than one centimeter in orbit, and over 50,000 larger than 10 centimeters. Massive debris clouds between 700 and 800 kilometers altitude can persist for centuries and multiply through collisions. Ground-based radar detects only the largest pieces; most debris remains invisible.
Read at www.dw.com
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