Space Junk

At any given time, there are over 13,000 man made objects over four inches in diameter orbiting in space. That doesn't even account for the millions of smaller items zipping around at 17,000 miles per hour. This space trash includes pieces of spaceships, tools, paint chips, broken off pieces of satellites, any many other objects. They all pose a danger to our astronauts, space stations and satellites and could actually impede future space-based solar projects. And there is always the possibility of the junk raining down on us. One Oklahoma woman got hit in the head by a fragment and, though she was not hurt, the incident proves a point. Following is a link to ten space junk intrusions into our atmosphere.

http://www.space.com/

So what is to be done about all this debris? NASA experts and scientists around the world agree that something must be done. They predict that even without future satellite and rocket launches, the problem will increase drastically after the year 2055. So the experts are putting their heads together to figure out just how to remove the debris. Some of the proposed solutions included installing a laser on the International Space Station and vaporizing the junk to sending up a spaceship to grab the junk and bring it all back to earth. Both of these proved not to be viable. There is even an organization made up of space agencies from several countries called the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee who are studying the problem.

At this point all scientists can do is track the space junk. The Department of Defence's Space Surveillance Network continues to monitor the ever active space in the Earth's orbit. Should they see debris on a collision course with a manned space craft or a satellite, the advance knowledge can avoid catastrophe by simply moving the object before the junk gets there. As recent as this July 17th, while the Endeavour was just arriving at The International Space Station with crew and equipment, a piece of space junk was seen heading right for the station. The Endeavour's astronauts fired thrusters to nudge the space station out of the way of the orbital debris.

The ESOC (European Space Operstions Centre) has some wonderful photographs of the evolution of space debris. You can find it at this link -

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ESOC/SEMN2VM5NDF_mg_1.html

Here's a NASA site for tracking satellites -

http://www.n2yo.com/

Do you feel light-hearted about the subject of space junk? Here's a Junk In Space game you can play with the kids.

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/games/junk_intro.html