Space Junk: The Growing Swarm of Trash in Our Atmosphere

Debris from spacecraft could prevent future space travel — here’s how we can fix it.

Humans are profoundly gifted at creating trash. No matter where you travel on earth, there are remnants of human debris. The highest points on earth are littered with climbing equipment from failed expeditions, the lowest trenches have microplastics. It’s no well-kept secret that we’re a species of litterbugs.

But, our propensity for creating waste isn’t even confined to our beautiful blue planet. Already, with the limited space exploration we’ve undertaken, we’ve created an impressive amount of debris. The waste from spacecraft, not so lovingly called “space junk” by scientists, is currently orbiting our planet at about 17,000 miles per hour.

Considering we’ve only been traveling to space for 50 years, the amount of debris we’ve left in orbit is staggering. Experts estimate that there are about 3,000 dead satellites in orbit and, more alarmingly, 34,000 pieces of medium-sized space junk and millions of pieces of mini-junk.

So, why does it matter? Junk in the lifeless void of space isn’t harming any animals or destroying ecosystems like the junk we have nearby. Right now, space junk isn’t a big deal. But it could be one day. If we…