# Space junk littering orbit; might need cleaning up



## Black Panther (Sep 2, 2011)

Incredible - our atmosphere is full up of rubbish and junk in orbit! 







The above computer generated graphic provided by NASA shows images of objects in Earth orbit that are currently being tracked. Space junk has made such a mess of Earth's orbit that experts say we may need to finally think about cleaning it up. That may mean vacuuming up debris with weird space technology _ cosmic versions of nets, magnets and giant umbrellas, according to the chairman of an expert panel that issued a new report on the problem Thursday. (AP Photo/NASA)



WASHINGTON (AP) — Space junk has made such a mess of Earth's orbit that experts say we may need to finally think about cleaning it up.

That may mean vacuuming up debris with weird space technology — cosmic versions of nets, magnets and giant umbrellas, according to the chairman of an expert panel that issued a new report on the problem Thursday.

There are 22,000 objects in orbit that are big enough for officials on the ground to track and countless more smaller ones that could do damage to human-carrying spaceships and valuable satellites. The International Space Station has to move out of the way of debris from time to time.

"We've lost control of the environment," said retired NASA senior scientist Donald Kessler, who headed the National Academy of Sciences report.

Since the space age began 54 years ago, civilization has littered the area just above Earth's atmosphere with leftover boosters and other parts that come off during launches, as well as old satellites. When scientists noticed that this could be a problem, they came up with agreements to limit new space junk and those plans had been working.

Those agreements are intended to make sure what is sent into orbit eventually falls back to Earth and burns up.

But two events in the past four years — a 2007 Chinese anti-satellite weapon test and a 2009 crash-in-orbit of two satellites — put so much new junk in space that everything changed, the report said. The widely criticized Chinese test used a missile to smash an aging weather satellite into 150,000 pieces of debris larger than four-tenths of an inch (1 centimeter) and 3,118 pieces can be tracked by radar on the ground, the report said.

"Those two single events doubled the amount of fragments in Earth orbit and completely wiped out what we had done in the last 25 years," Kessler said.

All that junk that means something has to be done, "which means you have to look at cleaning space," said Kessler.

The study only briefly mentions the cleanup possibility, raising technical, legal and diplomatic hurdles. But it refers to a report earlier this year by a Defense Department science think-tank that outlines all sorts of unusual techniques. The report by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is called "Catcher's Mitt" and it mentions harpoons, nets, tethers, magnets and even a giant dish or umbrella-shaped device that would sweep up tiny pieces of debris.

While the new report does not recommend using the technology, Kessler said it is needed. He likes one company's idea of a satellite that is armed with nets that could be sprung on wayward junk. Attached to the net is an electromagnetic tether that could either pull the junk down to a point where it would burn up harmlessly or boost it to safer orbit.

NASA officials said they are examining the study.

The report is from the National Research Council, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, which is an independent organization chartered by Congress to advise the government on science.


Source:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap...gmjr-w?docId=faa616cf2a374423bc80a271052ad448


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## Drone (Sep 2, 2011)

we need a Wall-E


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## AsRock (Sep 2, 2011)

Have they not been on about doing this before a few times in fact ?.  there will always be smace junk as there is so much crap up there.  I guess it be yet another reason to bump our taxes lol.


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## HossHuge (Sep 2, 2011)

People are dirty.


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## scaminatrix (Sep 2, 2011)

I think we should clean out the ocean first - they say the water level is rising - global warming and all that; but I have a theory that if we cleared all the thousands of years worth of sunken boats and rubbish from the ocean floor then we could drop the ocean level? Just a theory.

But that's for another thread.


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## Batou1986 (Sep 2, 2011)

Just like everywhere else humanity go's its littered with trash.
I vote we just build Gundams with golf clubs to take care of it


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## AltecV1 (Sep 2, 2011)

like always.....


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## erocker (Sep 2, 2011)

Won't it all eventually just get sucked back to earth via gravity and get burned up in the atmosphere like a big natural incinerator?


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## DannibusX (Sep 2, 2011)

erocker said:


> Won't it all eventually just get sucked back to earth via gravity and get burned up in the atmosphere like a big natural incinerator?



Yup.


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## AphexDreamer (Sep 2, 2011)

erocker said:


> Won't it all eventually just get sucked back to earth via gravity and get burned up in the atmosphere like a big natural incinerator?



But perhaps till then it could damage satellites or cause interference. Maybe that's why they want to get it done sooner?


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## erocker (Sep 2, 2011)

AphexDreamer said:


> But perhaps till then it could damage satellites or cause interference. Maybe that's why they want to get it done sooner?



As long as I don't have to pay for it, I don't care.


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## Deleted member 74752 (Sep 2, 2011)

^ 10-4 to that.   (Sounds like someone is looking for more government funded handouts, grants, freebies, ect.)


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## Jstn7477 (Sep 2, 2011)

Yeah, I've heard about the space junk orbiting our planet for years. Hopefully we can find an easy method to clean it all up.

Potential solution:


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## H82LUZ73 (Sep 2, 2011)

jstn7477 said:


> yeah, i've heard about the space junk orbiting our planet for years. Hopefully we can find an easy method to clean it all up.
> 
> Potential solution:
> http://img.techpowerup.org/110902/megamaidspaceballs.jpg



lol


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## Kreij (Sep 2, 2011)

We (the US) seem to be testing a lot of high powered lasers lately.
Seems that space junk would be a good target of opportunity.


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## Black Panther (Sep 2, 2011)

scaminatrix said:


> I think we should clean out the ocean first - they say the water level is rising - global warming and all that; but I have a theory *that if we cleared all the thousands of years worth of sunken boats and rubbish from the ocean floor *then we could drop the ocean level? Just a theory.



Something I could never understand - if you drop an empty beer can in the ocean it's litter, but 'dropping' an entire ship is not.

They say the ship would be like a reef, allowing fish to breed inside etc.. But won't regular smaller glass and metal be the same? Only for smaller organisms instead of fish? Weren't it for smaller marine flora and fauna fish wouldn't even exist..


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## WhiteLotus (Sep 2, 2011)

erocker said:


> Won't it all eventually just get sucked back to earth via gravity and get burned up in the atmosphere like a big natural incinerator?



No. Else the Moon wouldn't be there. If it has enough mass and velocity it will remain in space.


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