Space Junk

Cigarettes: they provide no nutrition and quench no thirst. They serve no purpose other than being an excuse to take a break from the grind, before getting right back to it. And on top of that, they're deadly. As far as American vices go, they might be at the top of the list. So ...  Show more

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How much junk can we accumulate in Earth's orbit before we seal off our world? Before we cut the planet off from the cosmos and doom civilization to a new dark age? In this episode, Robert and Julie look skyward to space exploration's garbage.

Since the dawn of Sputnik in 1957, space-faring nations have been filling Earth's orbit with satellites. Think GPS, weather forecasting, telecommunications satellites. But as those have increased, so, too, has space junk. On today's show, we talk about the first mission to clean ...  Show more

At any given moment Earth is orbited by an estimated 126 million pieces of space junk. How it'd it get up there? Will it fall down? What kind of problems is it causing for astronauts?

Astronomy Cast Ep. 591: What Are We Gonna Do With All That Space Junk? by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay Remember the good old days when there were only a few thousand living and dead satellites? Well, those days are long over. We're now entering an era where there will be tens of ...  Show more