The Great Junkyard In The Sky

The Great Junkyard In The Sky
23 posted on February 23, 2009
POSTED IN: Blog Posts, Technology

This is a computer-generated artist’s impression released by the European Space Agency (ESA) that depicts an approximation of 12,000 objects in orbit around the Earth. It’s pretty amazing to think that each of those specks represent hundreds of millions of dollars and serve as some important part of a communications or defense infrastructure. Or in some cases, leftover projects that were discarded and left out there in our junkyard in the sky.

12,000 Objects In Orbit Around us

It looks like our final frontier is going to need a few traffic lights. On February 12, a communications satellite belonging to US company Iridium collided with a defunct Russian military satellite. Honestly, I’m surprised stuff like that doesn’t happen more often.

So…are you the kind of person who loves the advancement of communication technology and welcomes more satellites being sent up? Or are you the person who wonders how many of those 12,000 satellites are spying on you right now?

TWEET THIS

This entry was posted on Monday, February 23rd, 2009 at 9:36 am and is filed under Blog Posts, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

22 Comments

Share yours!



  1. Visit My Website

    February 23, 2009

    Permalink

    1 Jason Ruggles said:

    This is a good wake-up call for those who think tomorrows answers will be solved by technology.

    And speaking of “them” spying on us…
    You can find a VHS tape upstairs at Mom and Dad’s about the evil that is the company Iridium. You should watch it sometime! :)

    Jason Ruggles’s last blog post..Eating Like A Thai



  2. Visit My Website

    February 23, 2009

    Permalink

    2 themisfit said:

    I like the technology, but there has got to be a better way than more satellites.

    I’ve also heard that the shuttles leave junk behind on every mission. And that they had to change the orbit of the International Space Station so as not to collide with any of this junk.

    It amazes me the damage we have done to our planet and we still haven’t learned.



  3. Visit My Website

    February 23, 2009

    Permalink

    3 Juli Jarvis said:

    This is fascinating to me because our daughter is graduating with a degree in Aerospace Engineering this spring. I’ll ask her if she knows anything about this, in particular about the shuttles and ISS.

    Juli Jarvis’s last blog post..Great Quotes — Two



  4. Visit My Website

    February 23, 2009

    Permalink

    4 b/ said:

    I love it! Keep me connected. And, it looks like the earth has a five o’clock shadow and needs a shave.

    b/’s last blog post..An Inward Movement // prompts an outward expression



  5. Visit My Website

    February 23, 2009

    Permalink

    5 jonathan said:

    Wasn’t it Steven Wright that said, “Sometimes I go to my window and look up and smile for the satellites.”

    ??



  6. Visit My Website

    February 23, 2009

    Permalink

    6 Mark Thomas said:

    I’m not too worried about being spied upon. I say “enjoy the show!”

    Mark Thomas’s last blog post..Sunday Setlist



  7. Visit My Website

    February 23, 2009

    Permalink

    7 Brad Ruggles said:

    @J – Watched that video before…scary!

    @themisfit – Yeah, guess we never quite learn our lessons.

    @Juli – I’d love to hear your duaghter’s take on it.

    @B/ – yeah bro, our planet definitely needs a shave

    @Jonathon & @Mark – That’s one way of looking at it. Guess we can always make it interesting and give em something fun to look at.



  8. Visit My Website

    February 23, 2009

    Permalink

    8 Nick said:

    I just hacked into a NASA satellite and I can see you…nice boxers, didn’t take you for a hearts kind of guy! :)

    I am all for the advancement of technology and communication abilities, but we should consider ways of cleaning up some of our mess. A few guided missles should help knock some of that junk out of the sky!

    Nick’s last blog post..Family Adventures at 4 a.m.



  9. Visit My Website

    February 23, 2009

    Permalink

    9 Brad Ruggles said:

    @Nick – Yeah, I’m all about the heart boxers. Lisa got them for me for Valentines Day. Oh, and in case you’re still watching me I just mooned you.



  10. Visit My Website

    February 23, 2009

    Permalink

    10 Nick said:

    I saw that…you’re in great shape!

    Nick’s last blog post..Family Adventures at 4 a.m.



  11. Visit My Website

    February 23, 2009

    Permalink

    11 Vince said:

    concern? maybe

    worried? nah

    Vince’s last blog post..Tour of California



  12. Visit My Website

    February 23, 2009

    Permalink

    12 Sid Watal said:

    That pic reminds me of that scene in Wall-E when the spaceship leaves Earth’s orbit and there is just a layer of spacejunk surrounding it. Scary, especially if you take the movie’s message about what un-checked technology and consumerism is doing to us.

    Sid Watal’s last blog post..Daily Digest for February 23rd



  13. Visit My Website

    February 23, 2009

    Permalink

    13 Aaron said:

    Maybe Superman can come along, rope it all together like he did the nukes in IV, and fling it into the sun.

    Or not.

    Aaron’s last blog post..Classic Margarita



  14. Visit My Website

    February 23, 2009

    Permalink

    14 Ric said:

    The artist rendition of the space junk is intentionally exaggerated. “Objects in the picture appear much larger than reality” About 1000 times larger. Many of the satellites are in an equatorial geostationary orbit. Its easy to avoid bumping into them since they are lined up along the equator and they are orbiting at an altitude of 22,000+ miles. The low earth orbiting (like the Shuttle) is about 4,000 miles up.

    In the worst case scenario, if all satellites were low orbiting at 4000 miles then the circumferance of the imaginary globe these satellites would be sitting on would be a little over 260 million (about 50,000 miles). If each satellite were 20 feet long (which is generous) and we lined them up end to end we would have 12,000 * 20′ => 240,000 foot space train.

    So that means we don’t have quite enough junk to go 1/1000th of the way around globe.

    Put another way, to represent this entire train of satellites on the picture of this post, I’d have to draw a dot with the tip of a sharpie.

    And yes I love technology. duh huh?

    Ric’s last blog post..Everybody Hurts



  15. Visit My Website

    February 23, 2009

    Permalink

    15 Brad Ruggles said:

    @Aaron – Yes! That would be awesome! Calling Superman now…

    @Ric – Uhhh…wow. I wasn’t expecting quite as detailed or a scientific comment as that! Did you figure that all out on your own or copy it from a web site? Either way, I think you probably spent more time than I spent even writing this post!



  16. Visit My Website

    February 23, 2009

    Permalink

    16 Ric said:

    Here’s a cool NASA site that charts and tracks 900 satellites. The brighter dots in the foreground are geostationary satellites. You can click on the dots to see what satellite it is. You can drag it around so that you’re looking down on the Americas and click on the geostationary birds. you’ll find DirectTV’s sat above us among many others.

    Ric’s last blog post..Everybody Hurts



  17. Visit My Website

    February 23, 2009

    Permalink

    17 Ric said:

    I used my calculator on the pc and the numbers I already know to calculate that. I worked for NASA for 10 years.

    Ric’s last blog post..Everybody Hurts



  18. Visit My Website

    February 23, 2009

    Permalink

    18 Ric said:

    sorry… last one. the link for my 2nd comment:

    http://science.nasa.gov/Realtime/jtrack/3d/JTrack3d.html

    Ric’s last blog post..Everybody Hurts



  19. Visit My Website

    February 23, 2009

    Permalink

    19 Juli Jarvis said:

    Wow — That’s cool Ric! Thanks for sharing! And — I didn’t understand a thing you said! But it was fun playing with the NASA website. :) I didn’t understand much of what my daughter said either, and it’s too long to post here, but here’s part of it (which was a result of a discussion in her spacecraft design class): “Well it’s true there is a lot of space junk…but the majority of it is between 1-10cm in size, and consider the radius of the Earth as we know it compared to the radius 300-500 km above us…much bigger area. The US tracks about 19,000 piece of space junk on the order of 5-10cm in size (as well as actual spacecraft and satellites)..If there’s a potential for a collision with something that can change its position, like the ISS or another satellite, then they’ll move it out of the way (to a slightly different orbit) to avoid the collision. The collision of the satellites last week though was a very very unlikely event. The ellipsoid overlap between the two was very small, and the probability of the two being in the same place at the same time very low. The people who track these satellites and space debris have a constantly-updating list of potential collisions and their probabilities. The probability of those satellites colliding wasn’t even in the top 150 most likely collisions that day. In fact, the people tracking it knew they had lost a signal, but didn’t know it had collided until well after the event. The space station does have to move from time to time to avoid certain things, mainly if they have the potential to collide with a pressure vessel (crew compartments, oxygen) which could cause a massive and rapid leak.” She also said she doesn’t think the shuttles leave much (if anything) behind — occasionally a loose tool or glove that escapes from the equipment bay. Most of the debris up there was leftover from the first 30 years of space flight.

    Juli Jarvis’s last blog post..Great Quotes — Two



  20. Visit My Website

    February 23, 2009

    Permalink

    20 Brad Ruggles said:

    Wow, I am learning so much from you guys. I have such smart readers.



  21. Visit My Website

    February 24, 2009

    Permalink

    21 The Secret Life of Kat said:

    I love the technology but seeing my front yard and my car on Google street maps is a little weird.

    At the same time I had so much fun the other day looking up my childhood home on Google. It was really cool to see that the house looks just the same…



  22. Visit My Website

    February 24, 2009

    Permalink

    22 Jared Woodard said:

    HEy,as long as my 3G network stays up long enough to check my google reader,I got no problem with all this “Space Debris” :D

    Jared Woodard’s last blog post..Pure Genius



Leave a Comment

Here's your chance to speak.

  1. Name (required)

    Mail (required)

    Website

    Message

Ad Ad Ad Ad
Ad