The expression “Out of sight – out of mind” is often used to rationalize why people are comfortable contributing massive amounts of trash to their local landfills. The issue of tossing out our junk is easily ignored, as the landfill is not in our backyard. If it were, the amount of junk tossed by the average person would decrease drastically.
A little farther from our local landfill, tons upon tons of waste that does not make it to a designated land disposal site eventually floats to an undesignated water-based one. Sadly, 20% of the Styrofoam that is produced finds its way into the ocean, where it slowly decomposes over hundreds of years. Unbelievably, square kilometres of the stuff are floating in certain locales of our hydrosphere. If this insult to our environment were floating in a lake in your neighbourhood, it would be hard to ignore. As it floats hundreds of miles away, it is out of mind.
It is not surprising then that man continues to fill yet another of its reservoirs with waste: our orbital environment. To quote the film Wall-E, “There’s plenty of space up in space!” Indeed, what could be a better place to store our junk? The space beyond our atmosphere is plentiful, and it is most certainly out of sight – unless of course you happen to be aboard the international space station, in which case even small space debris poses a life-threatening risk.
What is meant by space junk?
Most objects that orbit the Earth began on Earth. While hundreds of satellites are currently operational, thousands of them are decommissioned. Once satellites are no longer used, they are not physically brought down from orbit, as to do so is prohibitively expensive.
Beyond our atmosphere there is no drag force, no fluid to push up against. In a car, boat, train or plane, it is expensive to thrust forward, but free to press the brakes. In space, slowing down by 100 m/s is just as expensive as speeding up by 100 m/s. For this reason, satellites that are placed in orbit remain there indefinitely – all satellites are destined to be space junk eventually.
