by Bob McDonald
The rest of space junk in higher orbits is a much bigger problem. Because that junk is completely above the atmosphere, it will take thousands of years to drop to Earth, if it ever does. And with an ever-increasing number of satellite launches in the future, the amount of debris and derelict satellites will only increase as time goes on. If we don’t do something about the problem, we could get to a point where it will become impossible to launch anything into space because of the hazard of running into junk.
And let’s not forget the many tons of equipment that were left on the moon, such as lunar modules and rovers, boots, scientific equipment, and robot landers that no longer work. There are several dead satellites in orbit around the moon as well.
Even Mars has space junk already, with dead satellites in orbit around the red planet as well as dead robot landers and rovers on the surface.
So what can be done to clean up all of this space junk?
There are a range of ideas. The European Space Agency has a plan to send up a robot to capture derelict satellites, either with a mechanical arm or a net, and drag them down into the atmosphere. But that would require a huge number of robots.
Other organizations suggest sending up refueling robots that will act as space gas stations to fill the satellites’ fuel tanks and keep them operating longer.
Other ideas are a little more radical. The Australians have proposed using a high-powered laser to blast the very small pieces out of orbit. The Chinese are working on a similar plan. But some people worry that a laser could be used as a weapon and weapons are not allowed in space… yet.
All of these ideas are very expensive because the amount of junk in space is huge and spread over such a vast area. Any cleanup method will take decades.
The best idea is to stop leaving junk up there in the first place. Already, we’re designing rocket boosters that return to Earth for recycling. Future satellites should carry extra fuel that can be used to dispose of themselves at the end of their useful lifetimes.
There was a time when people didn’t think twice about throwing garbage out a car window. Now littering is against the law. It is time for a similar law to be put into place for the entire international space community so we can clean up the dangerous litter that surrounds the planet and ensure we can safely travel through and explore the cosmos for many years to come.
YOU TRY IT! Space Junk Food
The biggest problem with trying to clean up space junk is that there is so much of it spread over a massive area. Each one of the many pieces of junk are circling the Earth in a different orbit and at a different distance out in space, so it is hard to get to them all.
WHAT YOU NEED
An orange, apple, or a baseball (any small ball will do)
Some sugar
WHAT TO DO
Place the ball on a table and sprinkle some sugar in a circle around it, out to about the width of your hand.
Wet the tip of your finger with your tongue and try picking up the sugar by dabbing your finger on the table.
Rub the sugar off your finger and repeat. How many dabs does it take to capture all the sugar?
The ball at the center of the table is the Earth, while the sugar around it represents all of the junk circling our planet. Each dab of your finger mimics a spacecraft sent into orbit to clean up the junk. You can see that only a little bit of junk gets picked up each time, so it will take hundreds, if not thousands, of missions to clean it all up. Perhaps a better idea is to make sure that missions in the future don’t produce any junk at all!
CONCLUSION The Wonder of It All
The universe is an unbelievably huge, infinitely interesting place that we have only begun to explore. What we see with our eyes is only a tiny part of what is really out there. We have discovered that we live on a ball that is spinning at dizzying speeds through an ever-expanding space that includes other fascinating worlds, swirling galaxies, and mysterious black holes.
In the future, robots will visit more worlds in our own system, drilling through the ice of Europa to search for life in its salty ocean, or sailing the methane seas of Titan. Human explorers will return to the moon and then head out to the dusty red soil of Mars, searching for clues to any life that might be there now or fossils of creatures that lived there long ago. And speaking of life, perhaps one day soon we will make contact with another civilization, aliens from another world, and find out who our neighbors in space really are.
As our telescopes get bigger, more and more of the universe comes into view. And that raises more questions, such as: What went “bang” at the beginning of the universe? Was there anything before that? Are there other universes? How does life get started on a planet? Why can’t we go faster than the speed of light? Is time travel possible?
Who knows what we will discover as we seek out the answers to those questions.
While we look farther and farther out into space, we also think about our own place in it and on our home world. Everyone who has traveled in space has marveled at the beauty of our blue planet when seen from the outside. And while other planets are very interesting to explore, none of them are like our own. None of them have air that we can breathe, a climate warm enough so you can step outside in shorts and a T-shirt, lakes to swim in, or flowers to smell. In fact, every planet we know of will kill you. As far as we know, Earth is the only place where you don’t have to wear a space suit just to take a walk.
So studying the wonders of the universe is also a study of our home planet, a beautiful blue oasis of life floating in a fascinating but deadly sea of darkness. It may be a small planet, but it’s all we have, and that makes it worth taking care of.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank Nita Pronovost and Brendan May for their patience and skill in editing the manuscript, John Pearce for bringing my ideas to publishers, and Jennifer Hartley for her support and encouragement.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo by Jennifer Hartley
BOB McDONALD has been the host of CBC Radio’s Quirks & Quarks since 1992 and has worked in TV and radio for more than forty years. He is a regular science commentator on CBC News Network and science correspondent for CBC TV’s The National. He has been honored with the 2001 Michael Smith Award for Science Promotion from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the 2002 Sandford Fleming Medal from the Royal Canadian Institute, and the 2005 McNeil Medal for the Public Awareness of Science from the Royal Society of Canada. In November 2011, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2014, an asteroid designated 2006 XN67 was officially named BOBMCDONALD in his honor. Bob lives in Victoria, British Columbia. Visit him on Twitter @CBCQuirks.
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ALSO BY BOB McDONALD
Canadian Spacewalkers: Hadfield, MacLean and Williams Remember the Ultimate High Adventure
Measuring the Earth with a Stick: Science As I’ve Seen It
Wonderstruck II
Wonderstruck
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Interior design by Lewelin Polanco
Illustrations by Tony Hanyk, tonyhanyk.com
Cover art © Sergio Camalich
Cover design by Jessica L. Boudreau
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: An earthling’s guide to outer space : everything you ever wanted to know about black holes, dwarf planets, aliens, and more / Bob McDonald.
Names: McDonald, Bob, 1951– author.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20190094664 | Canadiana (ebook) 20190094672 | ISBN 9781982106850
(hardcover) | ISBN 9781982106867 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Outer space—Miscellanea—Juvenile literature. | LCSH: Universe—Miscellanea—Juvenile literature. | LCSH: Astronomy—Miscellanea—Juvenile literature.
Classification: LCC QB500.22 M34 2019 | DDC j520.2—dc23
ISBN 978-1-9821-0685-0
ISBN 978-1-9821-0686-7 (ebook)
