Via io9, check out this disturbing video of Earth’s nearest space neighbors.
Yes, I realize each article of space garbage is many orders of magnitude smaller than the pixels used to represent it in the video, but we sure are good at cluttering up our aerospace. Consider the near-misses and close calls that the ISS has had over the past few months, and extrapolate that out — each one of those is a bullet zipping around the Earth at such high velocity that it could wreck any of our legitimate satellites or space missions.
We need to start taking better care of our space. If we’re ever going to get off this rock, in fact, we need to learn to stop wrecking every environment we dare to dip our big toes into.
4 comments
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Shannon
March 30, 2010 at 10:09 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thank God men cannot as yet fly and lay waste the sky as well as the earth!
– Henry David Thoreau
jthibeault
March 30, 2010 at 10:12 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Helluva quote.
Shannon
March 30, 2010 at 11:30 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I read it a few days ago, and it seemed appropriate lol
Paul S.
March 31, 2010 at 6:49 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I think it was just last year when for the first time two (artificial) satellites were destroyed in a direct collision. I doubt that will be the last time.