Comments on: Space Junk Litter Earth’s Orbit

By: Alyssa

Alyssa — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:11:24 +0000

I agree with Carl, but I understand that they are trying to “make new discoveries” and what not, but if they are just up there doing nothing then whats the point? And are they really necessary? Come on keep the world clean, I don’t want to wake up to see space junk on fire in my front yard.

By: Gerry

Gerry — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:53:29 +0000

It only looks crowded in pictures like that.
If you look at those objects in the pic, they’d have to be thousands of times larger than ANYTHING ever launched into space.

In reality if you shrank each dot down to actual size, you wouldn’t see anything there at all.

The total area of the LowEarthOrbit ’sphere’ encompasses many hundreds of millions of cubic miles and there is MUCH more room there than the photo would lead you to believe…..

By: Carl

Carl — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 04:06:10 +0000

Note that my first comment accompanied a differnet picture for the article. Anyway, is space junk an issue? The real issue is the frivolous launching of satellites with pointless goals (MORE TELEVISION STATIONS MONEY DOLLAR DOLLAR). Stop killing the planet with your cable subscription.

By: Jon Anderson

Jon Anderson — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 03:46:01 +0000

XuYu,

Shooting down a satellite breaks it into smaller debris, which are harder to track. This is the reason everyone was against the Chinese missile launch. (And of course the fact that it gives them practice shooting down satellites)

The spy satellite shot down by the US government was in a much lower orbit, so the debris field fell to Earth instead of becoming a problem.

By: Lea

Lea — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 22:20:12 +0000

We can’t even keep space clean…jeez.

By: Ali S.

Ali S. — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 18:59:15 +0000

If any Aliens ever did want to visit us they’ll have to go through our space garbege dump? Wow. Way to look good to the new neighbors visiting us.

By: awesomemustache

awesomemustache — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 15:33:25 +0000

This is where all the socks go when they sneak out of your dryer.

By: XuYu

XuYu — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 15:21:28 +0000

Can’t we just shoot down some of that junk with missiles? (Or hire the Chinese to do it?)

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 15:02:44 +0000

I agree with Another Jake. The problem isn’t 5600 satellites - it’s the debris that they create (paint chips, loose screw, etc) as they break down in space.

By: Another Jake

Another Jake — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 14:25:42 +0000

Parker:
The problem is that every time one of our “retired” (read DEAD) orbiting satellites breaks apart, the debris is traveling at about 20,000 miles/hour. At that speed, if the space shuttle (for example) is hit by a paint-chip, it takes significant damage. I’m not making this up; this is recorded data. “Space junk” flying out into space is not a problem, as you say. However, space junk STUCK IN ORBIT is a HUGE problem for us. Several solutions have been recently proposed by NASA but none are really that great yet. Some are as loony as putting up in orbit a MASSIVE mylar sheet to catch or slow down debris so it stops and falls to earth… which would work if you can spare like a million square miles of mylar…

By: Seb

Seb — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 13:52:15 +0000

We need to send a Katamari Damacy ball up there and let it gather all the junk.

By: CheeseDuck

CheeseDuck — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 13:48:40 +0000

You scary space!

By: empty-minded

empty-minded — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 13:31:42 +0000

Hey, I see my spare key to the basement door. I’ve been looking for that for two years.

By: Scotchdrnkr

Scotchdrnkr — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 13:04:35 +0000

Pakker: I understand your reasoning but what about the fact that the Shuttle & the Space station are being hit on a regular basis by this junk. Are they just that unlucky?
This is a typical human problem. Lets do what we want without thinking about the consequences till we really have to. Similar to Nuclear Power. Hey we get all this FREE energy. So what if theres a little waste left behind, we’ll worry about figuring out what to do with it latter. Well latter is here and we better start dealing with this junk soon. Or every ship we launch will be in danger of hitting something.

Look at the bright side. Maybe all this space junk will protect us from an Alien invasion. Who would want to try to drive thru all this stuff just to get to a planet that is even more polluted?

By: clinton labombard

clinton labombard — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 12:54:41 +0000

Interesting timing on that article:
http://www.kongregate.com/games/Neopolita/debris-hunter

By: Tim Giachetti

Tim Giachetti — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 08:49:00 +0000

Please read the entire article. The picture above is what it will be like in the very near future. This IS a problem. To put it in perspective, for you LOST watching mouth breathers. If we ever want to get off this island we better start doing something quick. No dream sequences or brainwashing needed to understand that. It is getting very near to the point that each launch is adding to the mess and adding to the real threat of running into this shit we leave behind.
Falling to earth isn’t the big deal. It’s mission survivability.

By: Lasse

Lasse — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 06:54:03 +0000

We even succeeded in polluting space. Now that’s what i call civilisation.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 05:56:45 +0000

Imagine if 5600 cars were the only objects on earth. How long would you have to drive to come into visual range with just one other car?

By: the robot child

the robot child — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 05:04:22 +0000

That doesn’t look like the earth I knew growing up.

By: Sofar

Sofar — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 04:58:54 +0000

It’d be cool if we developed a visible ring at some point, as time goes on junk will collide with other junk and break into smaller and smaller pieces and eventually become dust.

By: Parker

Parker — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 04:22:03 +0000

As Douglas Adams said, “space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.” 5600 satellites, each with the mass of about two cars, is nothing when compared with the nearly two hundred million square miles of planet they orbit. Granted, space junk is a growing concern that should be acknowledged. But in 2008 it should register a solid zero on the things-we-ought-to-be-seriously-concerned-about scale. And that image is downright laughable.

By: Justin

Justin — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 04:13:13 +0000

What Carl are you telling me there aren’t city sized satellites orbiting Earth?!?!?

By: Carl

Carl — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 03:49:35 +0000

Wow, every living thing on earth would die if that sensational picture were accurate.

By: Barbwire

Barbwire — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 03:17:23 +0000

Is there no plan to manage this mess?