"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.""
""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. A one-centimeter fragment is enough to destroy a satellite, he added, because "a collision releases the energy of a hand grenade.""
Leonidas Askianakis organizes 30-minute online meetings from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. and maintains a calendar booked weeks ahead for his Project-S startup, funded by public money and venture capital. Space debris now comprises thousands of tons of retired satellites, spent rocket stages and countless fragments circling Earth. The European Space Agency estimates more than 1.2 million objects larger than one centimeter and over 50,000 larger than 10 centimeters. Massive debris clouds at 700–800 kilometers altitude will remain for centuries and can multiply through collisions. Even one-centimeter fragments can destroy satellites due to the high energy released on impact.
Read at www.dw.com
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