Name: Jennifer L Wingort
Status: Other
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: N/A
Question:
Someone told me that it is O.K. to develop a way to put trash into space
because space is never ending. First of all, do you think space is really
never ending? It seems like we always seem to use up what we have, so I
cannot imagine that we would not eventually run out of "space" also. I am
also wondering what research has been done, and what plans have been made in
regards to putting waste in space.
Replies:
Space is very large compared to Earth. Even if we "threw away" the whole
planet, it would be a tiny speck in the vastness of space. There are probably
lots of planets orbiting other stars, but we cannot even see them. There is
no danger of filling space with junk. Now there is a problem with filling
Earth orbit with junk, because Earth orbit is a fairly small region of space.
But it takes so much energy to get into Earth orbit that it will never be a
practical junk heap. We are not even sure it is worth the cost of putting a
space station up there, let alone a pile of garbage. Garbage on Earth is
something we are just going to have to learn to live with.
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