The final garbage frontier
March 17th, 2009
Just when you thought our pollution problems couldn’t get any worse — countries running out of landfill space, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, pharmaceuticals in our water — it seems we’re approaching the final garbage frontier: outer space.
Do a Google image search for “Earth,” and our beautiful blue planet appears, luminous and striking against the blackness of space. The reality, however, is grim.
Computer-generated image of space junk orbiting Earth (European Space Agency, 2008)
Space exploration in the past five decades has turned the low orbit of our planet into a hovering junkyard, a mix of dead satellites and discarded rocket hardware. The LA Times reported last month that this space garbage — euphemistically referred to as “space debris” — isn’t just an eyesore for visiting space aliens; it also poses a serious hazard to space shuttle missions, as well as the International Space Station. This junk isn’t just floating in space, it’s hurtling around the earth at 18,000 mph. A collision could have devastating consequences.
It was exactly this scenario that NASA scientists feared this week, when it was reported that astronauts on the station might have to evacuate due to a possible collision with a piece of an old Soviet satellite. Luckily, the astronauts got good news today that the space station was safe from space junk. It was a close call, though; because it was deemed too late for NASA to move the station, the crew had taken shelter in the Russian Soyuz before receiving the all-clear today.
The UN passed a set of space-debris guidelines in 2007, but obviously more serious action needs to be taken to confront this issue. Hopefully this week’s nail-biter will be a wake-up call.
–Jennifer Grayson
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March 7th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
I can see stars billions of light years away, but not one piece of space garbage. Do you think there’s something wrong with this picture?… literally?
March 8th, 2010 at 10:08 am
Hi Dave,
Sorry, not sure what you mean by this. Are you asking why you can see stars in the sky, but not space garbage floating around?
March 25th, 2010 at 1:48 pm
Stars glow…space garbage doesnt, u idiot. Thats just like saying…”hmm i can see the parking lot light from across the street, but not the flys flying around in front of it” Duuuh dumb ass! Thats cuz they dont glow!
April 13th, 2010 at 11:07 am
What Dave meant was what was wrong with the size of the satellites on the above picture… This pic has obviously been hugely enhanced. If the satellites shown on this pic were true to size they would be the size of cities or larger!
You can’t see space junk because it is too small to see from earth or even in satellite images (as the one above). The story tells us how much space junk there is, but the picture shows immensly enlarged satellites to try and demonstrate the point!
Please don’t call people idiots, when you don’t understand the question or the answer.
April 13th, 2010 at 11:18 am
Yes, of course — this is a computer-generated image. The ESA site states that “the debris objects shown in the images are an artist’s impression based on actual density data”:
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ESOC/SEMN2VM5NDF_mg_1_s_b.html
May 16th, 2010 at 6:32 am
They need a craft that attaches itself to the rogue satellite, etc and slow it down, bring it to the space station, dismantle it and salvage parts for the station…
May 24th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
maybe some kind of drone can be created that latches on to space debris and sends it back to earth. (it will burn away to nothing on the way down). It would be nice to salvage them for parts, but also very expensive to set up a salvaging station.
August 4th, 2010 at 4:18 pm
I doubt it would burn up on re-entry…it was designed to withstand those heats on exit
.
As for Daves question…in the correct conditions it is possible to see sattelites orbiting the earth, as long as the sun catches them correctly. So further to his point, im sure if the problem was as immense as it is being made out to be, I too think we would see more evidence, at least, of this amount of debris. Think of how many airplanes there are in our skies at any time. Flying at around….30,000-35,000 feet? Perhaps higher? How many mid air crashes do we ever see? None. Thats at 30,000 feet. Now, imagine multiplying by at least thirty the area in which these hypothetical collisions could take place (minimum orbit height at roughly 1,200,000 feet)……..not to mention that a significant percentage of these objects would orbit at different heights….
I cant see much truth in the collisions theory. Or the junkyard theory actually.