How the world's most remote place became an isolated spacecraft graveyard

Tech & Gadgets

The world's most remote place has been turned into a creepy graveyard after hundreds of spacecraft crashed back onto Earth and into the ocean.

Point Nemo is actually so isolated from the rest of civilization that it is the closest neighbors are astronauts who live in orbit around the Earth.

A mock-up of the Mir space station that launched from space and landed in Port Nemo – one of 263 abandoned spacecraft

The Russian Mir space station was sent into the ocean and has been there since 2600 kilometers away from the nearest people and countries

A team of cosmonauts works underwater on a spacecraft

Located in the middle of the South Pacific and 1,600 miles from the nearest piece of land lies Point Nemo – also known as the Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility.

The closest place to this point is Ducie Island, part of the Pitcairn Islands, but this is a whopping 2,200 kilometers further away than the International Space Station (ISS) above it.

This is because the ISS is about 250 miles from the ocean, meaning the astronauts on board are actually the closest people to Point Nemo.

However, being so far away from everything and everyone has one very important advantage.

The place is ideal for anyone who wants to safely release objects at dangerously high speeds from unimaginable heights, just like those in space.

With no one around for miles, it has become a dumping ground for lost Space Shuttle parts and outdated materials blown away from above.

Because of this, it has become known as a space cemetery where unnecessary parts spend the rest of their days bobbing up and down in the deep blue water.

Holger Krag, head of the European Space Agency's Space Safety Program Office, said: “This is the largest ocean region without islands. It's just the safest area for the long precipitation zone of debris to fit after re-entry.”

It was believed that between 1971 and 2018, global space megapowers such as the US, Russia, Europe and Japan crashed more than 263 space-related objects in the South Pacific.

This includes the legendary Soviet Mir space station alongside six aircraft from Russia's Salyut program and another 140 of their supply vehicles.

Japan launched six cargo transport vehicles to Earth, while the European Space Agency followed suit and sent down vehicles of its own.

Since then, the most famous piece of space history to end up in the clutches of the Point Nemo graveyard is part of Elon Musk's SpaceX capsule rocket, called the Dragon.

Even more impressive, the International Space Station – which weighs more than 4,000 tons – will be sent to Point Nemo in about eight years.

In 2001, Russian cosmonauts watched in rapture as the Mir space station tumbled toward Earth and shot through the sky.

Leaving behind a thick trail of smoke and the sound of sonic booms and shock waves, the Mir flew beyond the speed of sound and crashed into the South Pacific exactly as planned.

Any objects returning from space must reach astonishing speeds of 28,000 kilometers per hour to break through Earth's barrier and turn into boiling hot fireballs of extreme pressure.

This ended its whopping 1.2 billion kilometer journey around the world and literally sent the world's first modular space station to its death.

The remains were thought to be spread over 995 miles of ocean, with the largest being about the size of a small car.

The lonely Point Nemo is named after the famous submarine sailor from Jules Verne's famous novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

Looking to the future

Point Nemo is located in the most lifeless part of the ocean, with the seafloor drowned a whopping 2.8 miles below the surface.

Not only is it lifeless due to the lack of people, but also due to the small marine life it explores in general.

The waters around Point Nemo lack much of the natural oxygen necessary for marine life due to the depth of the water.

This combined with the freezing temperatures and next one without sunlight creates horror conditions for any life, but an ideal place for the preservation of spaceships.

These factors drastically reduce the rate of chemical processes such as rusting due to the lack of nutrients in the oceans, creating the perfect long-term space graveyard.

In 1,000 years, many of the abandoned objects explored far beyond our planet will still be in good condition, meaning they can be rediscovered and explored by scientists.

According to Alice Gorman, Associate Professor of Space Archeology at Flinders University, Australia: “This is something you find with historic shipwrecks: they are very well preserved underwater.

“It is only when they are brought to the surface that decay begins.”