Up in space there is so much debris that it is starting to become a threat to manned space missions, and other satellites. This has the potential to grow into a massive problem. We depend so much on satellites for communication, and other things, such as weather data. It could prove to be catastrophic if these satellites were damaged or destroyed. With pieces of already used rocket stages or frozen chunks of fluid flying around space, everything else up there is in danger. Luckily there is a Japanese scientist/entrepreneur that has a way to solve the problem. It’s called Astroscale. He will send up satellites with tracking capabilities, and glue on panels to catch the debris. Later the debris and satellite itself will burn up as it re-enters the atmosphere.
The only problem is that he needs to find a way to fund it. Most government space agencies are not really focused on cleaning up their trash. They want to do things like make new discoveries, and go to Mars. It’s hard to get the taxpayers to back this as well. That’s why I believe that everyone needs to be educated on this problem. If everyone knew what would happen if these satellites were damaged, and its very easy for them to do so, then maybe Astroscale would receive the funding it needs. This is a necessity, not just a good thing to do. Honestly I think the space agencies themselves should do this, because most of the debris is theirs. Either way, the problem needs to be solved.
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I think that most new or newly-invented solutions to man-made problems receive less funding, less publicity, and less support than they deserve. For many of these problems, because they can be ignored for now, they are. Until they become a serious problem, they won’t receive much support. While in preventive stages, a lot problems don’t get fixed. It’s often not until they absolutely require change that change will happen.
In a past communication class, at BYU, we learned from our teacher very early on that although we were learing about the merits and influence of the media, giving a problem more media coverage isn’t the end all solution to any problem. I think that this seems like a very legitimate and worrisome issue; however, people get so swamped and overstimulated with news. It seems difficult to decide what to fund or what in the most important for our attention. I don’t like feeling like the knowledge that I am recieving is controlled by those who are dispensing and their agendas. Maybe there is a better way to get like-minded people to the problems that face our country and world. I, however, agree that this issue is not well enough understood or controlled at present.
I am also in agreement that this issue is not emphasized as a problem as much as some other issues are. I think that a large majority of people are more concerned about their favorite celebrities than these sorts of issues that could cause potential harm. Especially if the problem is still in the “potential harm” stage. The motivation to spend large sums of money to fix something that isn’t even seen as a problem is really lacking. For the large majority of the population, I’m sure they don’t even understand what the issue is. I agree that the problem should be faced by those who started it- and if the space agencies are only concerned about sending more and more missions up there, then the problem will never get really solved, and will continue to worsen. I don’t know what space missions are in progress right now, but those should be put on hold to fix some of this debris. If the debris isn’t fixed, then there will be more potential to harm those space missions that do go out in the future! I think people need to understand this, but more importantly, the space centers themselves need to take responsibility and clean up before we send more up there.
I think that this makes perfect sense. After all these years sending all sorts of things to the space there has to be some debris out there. Those satellites are essential in the world we live in today, if they were all damaged or at least a considerable amount stopped working all of a sudden chaos would rise. The thing is that the owners of those satellites are precisely the ones that put the debris out there in first place. The likely-hood of several satellites failing at once because of the debris is still low, I think that once it does become a problem for the satellite owners they will find a solution. I completely agree that it is much better to start cleaning up sooner than later, but I would not say that this is an emergency.
I think he can put his idea in KickStarter 🙂
So many businesses and fundraising charities have collected over the goal budget from this page.
I feel that there not much discussion in the UN between the Member States about this topic. We need to protect the outer space around our planet.
I think it’s interesting that he’s finding it difficult to get government funding. It seems that there has been so much talk lately about human’s responsibility to clean up the earth and take care of the planet, that you think government’s would be all about that. It also stands to question how expensive this endeavor really is. It seems that government’s will preach the good word up until their wallets are required. Then everything changes.
So, my understanding is that he is planning on catching all the debris and then burning it by having it re-enter our atmosphere. Will there be environmental repercussions to this? What will the burning of all this debris do to our greenhouse gases? I agree that it is important to remove this debris and we definitely can’t leave it in space, but is there a more feasible, affordable solution that wouldn’t damage our planet?
This article is interesting in pointing out the potential dangers of debris in space but it does not provide much in specifics. A better understanding of the probability of a collision between space trash and satellites and the cost effectiveness of this type of project. The numbers here are really important. Being clean and caring for the the environment and space is important but it will always come at a cost and sometimes it really just isn’t worth it. Good ideas are supported by good ideals and the best ideas are practical and applicable.
As mentioned in the article there is a danger from this space garbage. But the collective action problem is apparent and no country will take the initiative to pay to clean up their trash while every other country leaves it on the back burner of their priorities. There could be more regulations created for every item that is put into space will have a life span that will be tracked and once it no longer is of use then it will be removed. But I do not see this being accepted from other countries.
Governments have a strong track record of not undertaking inconvenient projects until forced to by necessity, especially when it’s unclear which country bears the onus to fix it (international fishing grounds are a great example). I predict that projects like this Japanese man’s will continue to lack government funding until the satellite system is more imminently threatened.
Although space garbage is a legitimate problem, and as argued above, has been given a recent spotlight in the media, it won’t become something on government agendas until after it starts causing physical problems to a nation’s functioning operations in space. Even then, governments will be slow to implement, as because the trash belongs to no specific entity, its a common good, and no one has economic incentive to do anything about it.
This is a tough issuer many reasons. for one, we have a relatively small amount of information on this topic. Along with that it is an expensive problem that no one really knows how to fix, and even if they did, it is hard to know or establish which government or organization should take action. Because of these issues it is important that we spread awareness of issues like this because I believe that we will not see action taken on this issue until the people of the world demand it.
This is a really interesting and innovative solution to a challenging problem. I’ll be interested to see if this can actually work. However, with diminished interest in manned space missions, I doubt this plan will be tested until the problem escalates to the point that it interferes with communications and by extension the everyday lives of normal people.
This is another problem that is definitely there, but it isn’t the problem of any specific country or corporation. It is something that affects everybody, so no one entity feels the responsibility to fix it, especially at such a high cost. With the increasingly interconnected world, these problems are becoming more common, and solutions are hard to come by (just look at climate change). However, with all the problems, space trash will probably not be a top priority for a long time.
I think this problem is way too often overlooked in our society. Unfortunately, resources are limited and we need to decide which issues are the most important and should be addressed first. As important as space is to us, there are much more urgent causes that should get our time and resources at this time.
It is interesting to see how disinterested governments are about cleaning up after themselves. The mentality of “we will worry about it later” is everywhere in governments. That line of thinking is dangerous to the countries they are supposedly protecting. Like another commenter said, there is no incentive to fix the problem right now. If we keep up this way of thinking, problems like this will continue to pile up, until it comes to a point where we cannot fix them in the best way, rather it will become political and economic triage.