Space Junk

[bigpaul]

now here's the thing, i'm sure we have all seen pictures of all the space junk floating around in space orbiting the planet.
well, apparently, there is enough junk floating around up there to take out all the satellites that humans rely on, especially military stuff but commercial and personal systems too, just imagine this junk colliding with the satellites and reducing them to tiny bits of metal that could take out more satellites in turn.#
dosent bear thinking about does it? on the other hand maybe it would be a good thing if your a neo luddite like me??
according to the reports we are within 5 years of this being a reality.

 

[Maverick]

Each dot is an man made object, click or hover your mouse over any dot.

http://stuffin.space/

 

[jontte]

it's not enough we put thrash in the oceans,we do it in space too,we are a strange breed us humans

 

[DrHenley]

Each dot is an man made object, click or hover your mouse over any dot.

http://stuffin.space/

Now that's cool! In a sad kind of way...

Type 1961-031 in the search box of that site. You'll see listed the Thor Ablestar rocket that was launched in 1961, and its payload:
TRANSIT 4B - a navigational satellite (TRANSIT was the predecessor to the GPS system)
TRAAC - a testing satellite that among other things was used to monitor the Starfish Prime explosion.
TRAAC DEB - a piece of space junk that came from the TRAAC satellite.

These were of significance because of two things:
TRANSIT 4B and TRAAC were both destroyed by Starfish Prime.
TRAAC had a poem written for it by Prof. Thomas Bergin of Yale, and the poem was inscribed on the instrument panel. (first poem in space LOL):

And now 'tis man who dares assault the sky...
And as we come to claim our promised place,
aim only to repay the good you gave,
And warm with human love the chill of space.

TRAAC will continue to orbit as a useless satellite for another 800 years