CFP: It’s nothing new. Landfill sites are filling up, faster than ever, with all kinds of debris. Just about everywhere.
How did it come to that? Blame the “Greens” and the “Authorities.”
Why, you ask? The answer lies in the decomposition times for various items in your garbage-to-be-disposed-of. As they vary from a few years to millions of years, known as eons, the landfill sites keep filling up.
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But don’t despair—yet
There is another garbage site that finds rapid acceptance by various agencies around the world. And it has nearly unlimited capacity, at least on paper. That new “landfill site” is called SPACE, i.e., the next to unlimited space surrounding the earth. Isn’t it a big void, ready to be filled up—as some may think?
Space, the (Nearly) Unlimited Frontier
That stratosphere (“Space”) starts near the poles at a mere 5 miles (8 km) but near the equator more at double that height above the oceans, where the earth’s atmosphere is next to non-existent. The air pressure in the lower stratosphere (approximately 20 km height) is only 10% of that at sea level. That’s not enough to sustain your breathing and life. Furthermore, the temperature is somewhere between -40 and -80 degrees Celsius (40 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit BELOW zero).
As it appears though, all that unfilled “Space” is no longer quite as unlimited as some folks may think. For example, wayward screwdrivers and similar implements lost by astronauts on outside missions at the International Space Station (ISS) have put supply rockets as well as the structure and astronauts at potential peril for years already. But now comes a new menace, fragments of a satellite “successfully” blown to 400+ bits by a rocket from the military in India. Exactly how many fragments, their sizes and trajectories are not yet known, probably never will be. Any of those pieces hitting the ISS with a velocity that may puncture it can be fatal to its occupants.
Space Junk
If one of those pieces of space-junk is on a path that makes it come back down to earth, it’s nearly certain to burn up in the atmosphere with no concern to anyone at the surface. However, if you are in the ISS, even a small hole in its structure can result in a rapid loss of internal pressure and potentially cause the whole abode to become uninhabitable soon thereafter.
Of course, assorted pieces of other man-made satellites and their broken parts are relatively slow moving in comparison to other, high-velocity pieces of “micro-junk” that are beyond advance-recognition and tracking technologies. That (latter) type of “space-junk” usually travels at a much faster speed, like comets and asteroids that typically travel at speeds of many thousands of miles per hour!
Clearly, much of that outer space is next to empty but that’s no reason to think of it as another garbage dump, just there to be filled up with whatever disposable items from earth. Western societies’ (very costly) attempts to “RRR” (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle) are mostly a “feel-good” idea without any benefit and often to their detriment.
The” RRR” Idea
I have no problem with any of the “RRR” terms per se, but only within the framework of proper cost/benefit analyses. Willy-nilly application of any of those “R’s” without an understanding of their true effects, their costs (both here and elsewhere), or (known) better alternatives, makes the problems only get worse, not better. read more
I wonder if Astronauts who return from orbit refer to their package as “space junk”
Recycling efforts are doomed from the start when they are overseen by government.
‘Blame the “Greens” and the “Authorities”.’
Nah, Whitey does just fine,,,
Cynic – ‘Space Junk’ – Only when they visit the Blue Oyster,,
Good One!~
Two words:
Escape velocity.
The guy ends with a good point but it would deny the money and morality stream that the Left’s recycling scam provides, so it’ll never happen.
Need a “High Energy Laser Space Junk Eradicator” of
a several terawatts in power that will clean up space
junk and just happen to be handy to burn out those nasty
old NK ICBM’s and such.
Ronnie Reagan was right.
If they put enough junk in orbit it will blot out the sun and end global warming along with mankind, the real menace of the earth. (sar)
You’d get smaller pieces traveling at a much higher velocity in multiple radii for every blast. You would assuredly do more damage to ALL orbiting craft than you were trying to prevent.
You need to collect the pieces, not add energy to them.
Fortunately, the technology to do this job has existed for years;
https://youtu.be/O7aeWQCF1jM?t=157
Perry, you’re definitely on to something.
A lot of space could be recovered by doing what they used to do. Burning. They could also use that to fuel boilers for energy production. But the green weenies whine about pollution while saying nothing about China.
There are also old open pit mines that could be used for decades. But they whine about polluting the water table. But mine regulations require plastic liners to prevent seepage. Could be done here too.
But they really don’t want to solve problems, they want to create more that they can use to regulate the masses and tax, tax, tax.