Garbage in Space: A Space Discovery Guide

Garbage in Space: A Space Discovery Guide — page 3 — This large piece of space junk landed in Texas after falling from orbit DANGER ZONE This wasn’t the first time something had fallen to Earth from space Space junk has been a growing problem ever since space exploration began In 2013 for example about 600 pounds 272 kg of metal from a European satellite fell from the sky and landed in the South Atlantic Ocean And this kind of garbage is even more dangerous in space Millions of pieces of metal old spacecraft and satellites orbit Earth at up to 17,500 miles 28,164 kilometers per hour Working spacecraft and astronauts have a high chance of being hit by this orbiting garbage In fact in 2015 three astronauts aboard the International Space Station ISS were ready to head back to Earth in a space capsule to avoid being hit by a piece of a satellite hurtling toward them 6

Garbage in Space: A Space Discovery Guide — page 4 — The space around Earth is filled with so much junk that agencies on the ground monitor it around the clock They track all but the smallest pieces of space junk using radar telescopes and other equipment If monitors see that a large piece of junk is headed for a spacecraft or a satellite they alert the craft’s controllers who move the craft out of the way Orbiting space junk made this hole in a satellite inset Operators in the main control room for the European Space Agency ESA monitor space junk and control spacecraft below 7

Garbage in Space: A Space Discovery Guide — page 5 — This telescope in Spain searches for asteroids and tracks the orbits of objects in space above But as the amount of junk in space grows it might become impossible for spacecraft to avoid it George Zamka was an astronaut with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA the US agency in charge of spaceflight He said in 2014 that during my two space missions we flew upside down and backwards in a space shuttle to protect our shuttle windows from 8 Radars located in Massachusetts collect data about garbage in space for NASA

Garbage in Space: A Space Discovery Guide — page 6 — orbital debris And even doing that we had debris strikes and cracks in our windows Space experts say that humans need to clean up the junk in space before it damages more spacecraft They say that if we don’t get the space junk problem under control it might become impossible for astronauts to safely leave the planet to explore our solar system NASA is developing a radar system to better track objects in Earth’s orbit above NASA laser expert Barry Coyle works to develop a laser device for tracking garbage in space left 9

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