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NASA Warns a Space Junk Cleanup is Needed

news.nationalgeographic.com — NASA says that space is filling up with trash, and it needs to be cleaned up. Rockets, satellites, and blown-off hatches litter the area circling Earth.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jan 20, 2006

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  • Obvioustroll, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6You know, I never realized how badly our schools are failing till I read this thread.

    "Why can't we just screw with the orbit of the junk and let it fall into the sun?" - michaeljh

    "I cant believe someone is so stupid they would think space would fill up" - kazsymonds

    "this is the biggest joke ever, eventually earths gravity will attract all items in orbit and they will all burn up in orbit." - l33tgeek

    I think we should have a special thread just for mocking people who can't handle the concept of orbital mechanics.
  • szelij, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4It would take a downed crewed aircraft for something serious to be done about it. Before that nothing will happen. The best way is to simply 'nudge' those pieces into the atmosphere to burn up but how that is to be achieved is beyond me.
  • dpk87, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"And with NASA's success rate, fricken horrible, they need all the help they can get."

    Don't believe this crap about NASA having a horrible success rate. They have an incredible success rate. Sure no one cares about the thousands of incredibly complicated and successful missions that they have completed, but rather focus on the few failures that have occurred. I imagine it's ignorant people like you who think space exploration is a waste of money, and as soon as something blows up they suddenly have a horrible track record and should be stripped of their budget?

    It's an incredibly complicated and risky operation, but in more than a million ways worth it.
  • cypresso, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Well, I can't remember the last time I left debris in space, but maybe, one of the eggheads at NASA should have realized that if you put it up there, it will most likely stay up there (maybe they've heard of satelites before). Of course they need to slean it up, that is the stuff the probably hit the last space shuttle when it went up...
  • Meowmix, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Haha, cleaning up space debris is the job of the main characters in my favorite anime, Planetes.
    Let's hope it doesn't take a downed spacecraft before governments start teaming up to form collection crews.
  • DrRo183, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This should be interesting. Let's see if the mob takes over the business. We had it coming...
  • diggin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"Well, I can't remember the last time I left debris in space, but maybe, one of the eggheads at NASA should have realized that if you put it up there, it will most likely stay up there (maybe they've heard of satelites before). Of course they need to slean it up, that is the stuff the probably hit the last space shuttle when it went up."

    I totally agree with cypresso on this one. Why is this news? If you make the mess, clean it up. I'm aware that the US isn't the only country that goes into space, but again, there's only a few people who are responsible for making the mess. If I littered on the side of a highway, I'd get fined, but I guess if you do it in space, it's ok.
  • Ajediday, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Where's Quark at when you need him? Or is this more of a job for Salvage 1?
  • chevyorange, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I wrote a paper on this in 12 Grade (1991) and my goddamned teacher laughed at me.

    Son of a bitch!
  • tombomb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2looks like a job for captain planet...
  • NJank, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Moron = anyone who said "Space isn't filling up, it's Ginormous!"

    If someone starts shooting bullets toward your house, don't complain, because the bullets are so small there's still lots of empty space for you to walk through to get in and out of your house and play in your yard.

    Now, to fix the problem, you either collect and dispose of the junk, destroy them directly, or alter their trajectory. Either case involves direct interaction between some cleanup platform and the objects. Since we don't have tractor beams, #1 and #3 will require getting something up there. #1 would require flying around and grabbing all the junk. high fuel demands, I'd think. #3 would require putting something into higher orbit and either decreasing their orbital momentum or directly adding a trajectory component either one taking them into the atmosphere for burn-up, or adding energy to the junk such that it exceeds orbital escape velocity. My guess is that either destroying the junk or trajectory alteration for atmosphere burn-up would be most feasible. Now, how to do non-contact interaction with the junk, not sure.

    And finally, and the part that could indicate either future issues or ulterior motives with the whole thing: you are basically putting a space weapon in use, and the other nations aren't going to be very pleased at the idea of us having something up there that could take out their sat's, etc.
  • graphictruth, on 02/21/2009, -0/+1If a problem is obvious enough that you can hang a TV show on it, it's a pretty damn obvious problem.
  • turdferguson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Better call half-section.
  • floorman56, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I have heard of this a long time ago. Then it was called "The Diamond Sky" That is what would happen if a bit of space junk were to destroy the ISS. It would start a chain reaction that would cover near earth orbit with tens of millions of tiny parts making it impossible to go into space for 200 years. For us on the ground the night sky would twinkle like it was full of diamonds.
  • conphused, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's not a "problem" until someone's killed...
  • CaptSnuffy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Collect it and sell it on ebay! I bet the space junk would make cool sculptures.

    NASA should have a space junk sculpture garden
  • Navi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I copy!
  • Walmentheman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1so a spacetrashman?
  • e3mw, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1pintong: That's what i'm saying -- Why would they need to warn us? They're the ones putting the crap up there. That's like me throwing my latte in front of you while you're walking and saying, "Hey man I just wanted to warn you that there's a cup in your path and that might be a problem, you know -- in the future."
  • graphictruth, on 02/21/2009, -0/+1check out an old, golden age novella (I think, it is) "The Man Who Stole The Moon." :P
  • graphictruth, on 02/21/2009, -0/+1Space as a whole is infinite. Space we are concerned with - FAR less than infinite. Useful LEO and Geosync? Extremely high value real estate and the insurance costs associated with increasing collision risk will come out of your pocket in terms of the price it costs to access location and data services.

  • Sillybear, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Space Salvage Hunters ... Starcraft is almost upon us!
  • graphictruth, on 02/21/2009, -0/+1thumb up for attempt at sarcasm.

    thumb down for clear failure

    net result - nil
  • Hohenheim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Haha, cleaning up space debris is the job of the main characters in my favorite anime, Planetes.
    Let's hope it doesn't take a downed spacecraft before governments start teaming up to form collection crews."

    mmmm....was thinking the same exact thing :D
  • Avian00, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Ha Ha Ha! Sounds like a job for....

    Roger Wilco of the Space Quest Series!
  • Archimboldo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"You know, I never realized how badly our schools are failing till I read this thread."

    Tee hee. You're right, obvioustroll. Every janitor, addict, John Bircher, conspiracy theorist, and unemployed boom box listener on digg has advice for the international teams of PhDs telling us this is a problem. My favorite: "just send it to the sun." Yeah, easy. Just send it to the sun. Gaffaw.

    BTW, this is news. Knowing about the space junk is old, but models telling us that left to it self, the junk will progressively collide with itself until we have jillions of little space junklets is new.
  • FuManchu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Wo! So much material, so little sarcasm left in my soul. . .

    I'll try anyway:
    1] "I wrote a paper on this in 12 Grade (1991) and my goddamned teacher laughed at me. Son of a bitch!"

    If true, it only magnifies my estimation of how clueless public educators tend to be.

  • Jolene, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Bah! I say we just form the junk into rings....I always thought earth needed some rings....
  • FuManchu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12] "The reason they "put the junk out there to begin with" is simple: money. Sure, they knew they were throwing all this trash up there at the time they were throwing it. But they have to fight tooth and nail for their budget dollars. If making a mission clean up its own space junk by pushing it back to earth or out of orbit increases the cost of the mission (which is certainly would), then the smartest financial play for NASA is to ignore the problem, get the missions done at a cheaper cost for a long time, then eventually say "Hey, there's all this junk in space, and it's a real problem that endangers missions/shuttles/satellites/people - give us another chunk of money to get up there and clean that mess up". It might be more money than they saved originally, but now it's on a new budget item which is a necessity, rather than extra cash on an optional mission."

    This has several good point. But my own comment is simply:

    Congress controls the budget. If you aren't the pro-Israel lobby, the pro-Race lobby [of whatever color] or the pro Feminist lobby, you can suck eggs.

    Add to that, of course, the pro-Oil lobby, the pro-Munitions lob. etc, etc. The point is, the a-holes in Congress are going to vote $$ only for the people who've already paid them off.

    Dead astronauts/cosmonauts are not big contributors.
  • sgtawol, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Space will never fill up"rnrnTo those of you that state this, you're obviously not familiar with the little thing called 'GRAVITY.' You see, things are drawn to the earth. They circle the Earth in this little thing called 'ORBIT.' Now when things (like space ships) leave Earth, they have to go through this 'orbit.' Imagine driving to work but you have to pass through 4 mile long stretches of the Marine target range and they dont care if they hit you or not. This 'space junk' travels at about 22000 mph (according to the article.) So that makes your car door about as resistant as a piece of paper.rn
  • jrusch, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4antipion, you just don't get it do you?

    This 'space junk' is hanging out in our orbit. At the velocity some of the particles are moving at, it wouldn't take much more than a lose nut to take out an entire space ship. And with NASA's success rate, fricken horrible, they need all the help they can get. Space might be infinite but the junk is only hanging around us. Pushing it out to the infinite space or back to earth so it burns up is the hard part, and extremely expensive. So it is now NASA's job to find a way to get rid of it and do it the most expensive way possible, because that's what they are good at.



    please read the article before you talk stupid
  • Buelldozer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1All of you e-tards suggesting that this is primarily NASAs problem need to go back to huffing glue.

    Here is a partial list of countries who have launched objects into space or earth orbit.

    United States
    Russia
    China
    France
    Great Britian
    India
    Brazil
    Israel
    Japan

    Even THAT list is not complete. So before you start running off at the the mouth about how this is NASAs problem, or even the United State's problem...check yourself. You're wrong.
  • latinjones, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Why can't we just screw with the orbit of the junk and let it fall into the sun?"

    You would have to accelerate the object fast enough to escape earth orbit ( 11.2km / s ). What are you going to do, duct tape a rocket to it?
  • ph713, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1
    The reason they "put the junk out there to begin with" is simple: money. Sure, they knew they were throwing all this trash up there at the time they were throwing it. But they have to fight tooth and nail for their budget dollars. If making a mission clean up its own space junk by pushing it back to earth or out of orbit increases the cost of the mission (which is certainly would), then the smartest financial play for NASA is to ignore the problem, get the missions done at a cheaper cost for a long time, then eventually say "Hey, there's all this junk in space, and it's a real problem that endangers missions/shuttles/satellies/people - give us another chunk of money to get up there and clean that mess up". It might be more money than they saved originally, but now it's on a new budget item which is a neccesity, rather than extra cash on an optional mission.
  • swaxhog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Shout out to all those Debris Section peeps.
  • fushin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"I think we should have a special thread just for mocking people who can't handle the concept of orbital mechanics.

    "Yes, because there's so many public schools out there teaching orbital mechanics to these kids.
  • pintong, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"NASA Warns a Space Junk Cleanup is Needed"

    Warns who? Themselves?
  • dpk87, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"I cant believe someone is so stupid they would think space would "fill up", spose the moon is about 30 miles away right?

    Hmm...thought Nasa were pro"

    Ya.. them with their PHD's and years of experience, surely you know better than them...
  • carl689, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Yes, because there's so many public schools out there teaching orbital mechanics to these kids"

    uh.. I went to a REALLY lame High School and we learned about basic orbital mechanics
  • motorbikematt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@ mukluc

    I shall also point out that factoring in the area of an orbital surface is totally inapplicalbe, given that most debris, and most current and future orbital targets, do not encompass the maximum theoretical orbital area.

    All the junk is concentrated in the areas where we wish to be.
  • Mukluc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0circumference of earth is over 30000km... circumference of orbit is more then that... how many satellite are in space, 1000's? 10000's perhaps... Each 50 meters long (seems a big estimate)...rnrnarea of this orbit would be greater then (look on the net, this is smallest area for surface area of the earth): 148,000,000 km2rnrn100 000 satellites (order of at least 10 more then we have now) * 0.05 km = 5000km.rnrncompare those numbers... space debris is insignificant...
  • motorbikematt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Everyone who continues to blame NASA and the United States for the Space junk up there needs to come to the realization that the majority of junk in space is from the old Soviet space programs...where they didn't care what the hell they put up there. Yes, NASA is guilty, but by less than half.

    Before bashing NASA anymore than they really deserve, please read the following news report:
    http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/01/20/spacejunk.ap/index.html

    and conference proceedings:
    http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/COPUOS/stsc/2004/tech_pres.html
  • ForbesBingley, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The idea of clouds of piss and ***** hurtling around the Earth is just awe-inspiring...
  • artman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0While they're at it, why don't they pick up alll the carp they left on the Moon, Mars and other planets. Build a Rover with a pooper scooper. What they should build to clean up the crap orbiting Earth is a space shuttle with a huge net behind it...

    /always thought this crap dropped into the atmosphere...
    //can you link images on digg like other sites?
    ///how do you add that little image next to your ID?
    //// i'm a n00b here
  • bigboy101011, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Odlly enough I came up with a solution for this in a engineering class, it's basicly a network of simple low cost satilites that act like fly paper, they're so cheap that they would be disposible.

    If any admins see this i'll email you the diagrams if you want.
  • fornulf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"...U.S. Space Surveillance Network is currently tracking over 13,000 human-made objects larger than four inches (ten centimeters) in diameter orbiting the Earth."

    This infers that the debris smaller than 10 cm is not being tracked. It must be fun sitting up in orbit and pondering that particular fact.
  • xelloss, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Are they just counting there Trash or Russia too?
  • carl689, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0They are warning us that they are going to have to spend money to do something about it.. aka a piece of my money.
    .. thats how I take the warning anyway
  • diggidydawg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0pretty interesting article...
  • bashbang, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Hey create new game show called Spunk (SPace jUNK). Contestants fly around destroying Space Junk. Winner gets a tax free year or two.
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