Cleaning Up Space

BY HAROUN HOSSAIN

More than 8,000 metric tons of debris are floating around the Earth right now. This space junk threatens the loss of services we rely on such as GPS, telecommunications systems, the ability to forecast the weather, and more!

The space debris is made up of mainly satellite pieces, old rockets, and other debris humans have left up there. Over time the amount of debris has grown and if it keeps happening we may never be able to explore space. This is because all the debris is moving at more than 18,000 miles per hour. That's fast enough to destroy satellites, spaceships, and puncture space suits.

But there is still a way to stop the space junk growing and to save our Earth. Last month, Astroscale ELSA-d launched into space. Its goal was to test a way of cleaning up space. It did this by latching on to a piece of debris and hurling it into the Earth’s atmosphere. The debris would burn up harmlessly as it enters the atmosphere and not cause any damage to the Earth. As more companies such as Astroscale start to work out how to solve this problem we become a step closer to a debris free space.

Sources: xios.com/space-junk-clean-up-23d95cd1-f214-4589-98a9-ca2450f66853.html
​https://www.npr.org/2021/03/21/979815691/new-effort-to-clean-up-space-junk-prepares-to-launch

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