And so space travel ends for 50-100 years...

[Neil]

....well not quite, but there is the serious risk that as debris increases in orbit, it hits other objects creating more debris, which hits other objects which creates more debris.... and so on... Until earth is being orbited by millions of projectiles all travelling at tens of kilometers per second! This horrible scenario could have started... http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...t_10806956.htm

[MikePizzoff]

Great. We trash the Earth, then we start trashing space. What's next? Land-fills on the moon?

[fartpants]

Great. We trash the Earth, then we start trashing space. What's next? Land-fills on the moon? typical of our species, thoughtless and arrogant

[clanglee]

Great. We trash the Earth, then we start trashing space. What's next? Land-fills on the moon? Why bother with actually "placing" the trash anywhere? just jettison it out to space.

[Mike70]

Why bother with actually "placing" the trash anywhere? just jettison it out to space. does anyone remember (and yes i am dating the hell out of myself) that horrendous tv show with andy griffith where he played a junkman who was building his own rocket so he could go salvage the apollo stuff from the moon? anyhoo, this is a pretty serious problem that is only going to get worse as time goes by. i wonder how long it will be before an astronaut doing a spacewalk is hit by something. though the article does point out that steps have been taken recently to reduce the amount of junk left in orbit in the future, that does jack shit about the stuff that's already out there. here is an image you all might find interesting. this a map of the larger pieces of debris and who is responsible for them. the source of this pic was discovery magazine:

[capncnut]

All that craft debris and astronaut shit/food is revolting. If that's real then we should be a-f**king-shamed of ourselves. Major disrespect!

[Danny]

the earths gonna end up with a garbage ring around it by the looks of that.

[clanglee]

I guess the trick is to get it out of our orbit somehow. Personally.. I see nothing wrong with disposing of trash in the vast vacum of space. But having a trash ring about the earth could cause some major problems later on.

[Hail]

I'm thinking that to solve this all we need are a handful of orbiting laser satellites and a few Asteroids game experts.

[MikePizzoff]

Why bother with actually "placing" the trash anywhere? just jettison it out to space. Because, sir, that's dangerous. There's a possibility that the trash could slightly catch another planets orbit and FLING itself right back at Earth.

[clanglee]

Because, sir, that's dangerous. There's a possibility that the trash could slightly catch another planets orbit and FLING itself right back at Earth. and most likely burn up in re-entry. . besides. . I'm sure that the tragectory could be calculated to not return.

[Neil]

Because, sir, that's dangerous. There's a possibility that the trash could slightly catch another planets orbit and FLING itself right back at Earth. Most of it will remain in OUR orbit. Anything that somehow gained escape velocity would most likely never be seen again.

[Mike70]

Most of it will remain in OUR orbit. Anything that somehow gained escape velocity would most likely never be seen again. neil is right the vast majority of this stuff is up there for good or until we do something about it. most of the junk orbiting the earth is moving between 1.5 and 9 km/sec, well below the escape velocity of 11.2 km/sec. neil is also right that anything leaving earth's orbit at 11.2 km/sec or faster is never coming back. it would either be trapped by the sun's gravity (most likely) and end up in a solar orbit or if it is going fast enough leave the solar system forever. hellsing brings up an interesting point: i wonder if this junk has enough mass to accrete into a ring. what we clearly need is a space fred sanford to sort all this out.

[Neil]

neil is right the vast majority of this stuff is up there for good or until we do something about it. most of the junk orbiting the earth is moving between 1.5 and 9 km/sec, well below the escape velocity of 11.2 km/sec. neil is also right that anything leaving earth's orbit at 11.2 km/sec or faster is never coming back. it would either be trapped by the sun's gravity (most likely) and end up in a solar orbit or if it is going fast enough leave the solar system forever. hellsing brings up an interesting point: i wonder if this junk has enough mass to accrete into a ring. what we clearly need is a space fred sanford to sort all this out. Don't know about 'up there forever', but certainly I'd imagine it could be for tens of years...

[strayrider]

what we clearly need is a space fred sanford to sort all this out. Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Apparently so was someone else. http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5421540.html -stray-