Space Junk Janitors Should Sweep Up 5 Dead Satellites a Year, Experts Say
By Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer
Space.com | SPACE.com – Mon, Feb 27, 2012 Mike Wall
Space.com | SPACE.com – Mon, Feb 27, 2012 Mike Wall
This week I read an article about space junk orbiting Earth. You might be wondering what is space junk but it is pretty self explanatory. It is basically bits and pieces of broken satellites which are now useless junk. This space junk is very bad and is a huge problem. One reason it is a problem is that when two pieces of space junk collide they break apart and it just makes more, smaller pieces of junk. Secondly, it is a hazard for working satellites in space since they could be damaged by space junk. Lastly, it can be bad for the International Space Station and spacecraft come from Earth since they could also be damaged by the space junk. These problems are why scientists want to begin collecting at least five broken satellites per year. They want to start out by just collecting old rockets first. One problem that needs to be worked out is that NASA can’t just go up into space and take satellites and rockets that belong to other countries without their permission even if they are now useless junk. Also, they need to develop the technology to collect the junk and dispose of it safely. In conclusion, I agree that scientists need to start figuring out how to collect space junk before more of it accumulates in space. 