The Forecast on Space Junk It is a wonder to marvel about how much debris man has created over the

fighters. Yes, the wreckage did seem like tin foil, at first, until you held the

Pollution is now out of this world because according to “Cleaning up the Space Junk” “the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA has estimated that about 22,000 pieces of this pollution are as large as a softball and about 500,000 of them are closer to the size of a marble and there are possibly hundreds of millions of smaller pieces are also floating around the planet”.Based on the video “Space Junk” “the fail of Cosmos 54 led to fear of radioactive contamination from its nuclear power packs and that then confirmed that space junk can and will fall to Earth.And smaller pieces travel at an incredibly fast speed 17,000 to 21,000 mph so the damage that little tiny piece can do is potentially enormous.All

Although space junk may seem trivial,it is in fact crucial in terms of today's concern over everyday life. Apparently Nasa has just been throwing it out the window into our atmosphere, which is causing a gigantic problem. Some experts say there are just some things like satellites they cannot take back to earth. They say that they would only do it in in rare cases. If they take the things up there how come they can't take back it down to earth. They are trying to find a way to bring the trash back.

“Even before the first satellite was launched, U.S. leaders recognized that the ability to observe military activities around the world from space would be an asset to national security… Intelligence-gathering satellites have been used to verify arms-control agreements, provide warnings of military threats, and identify targets during military operations, among other uses” (Space Exploration). During an age when nuclear threats loomed upon both the U.S. and the USSR with frightening reality, it was crucial for intelligence agencies of both nations to gather as much information as possible about the other’s missile programs and operations. This created the demand for orbiting satellites that would send back crucial information. Another benefit of orbital satellite reconnaissance was the low risk involved. In 1960, an American U-2 spy plane flying over the Soviet Union on a reconnaissance mission was shot down by the Soviets. “The Soviets managed to shoot down Powers's U-2 and capture the American pilot” (U-2 Affair). The pilot was imprisoned, CIA operations were revealed, and the U.S. was under a huge international embarrassment. Launching satellites does not risk losing human lives, leaking secret information, or losing national integrity during unexpected occasions such as the U-2

October 4, 1957: The Russia launched Sputnik into space. Thus began the seemingly-eternal battle for control of space exploration. Who would get the first man into space; to the Moon, to Mars? Everything that could be done by either country was being done to give the edge. It soon became obvious to all that neither country was going to back down from the challenge. However, a lot has changed since 1957, governments have slumped, privatized exploration has taken charge. . . what happened? Where is space exploration going? Where is the human race, today?

The United States of America relies heavily on its ability to operate in the most contested and most undetermined domain, space. The space domain is one of the newest domains that the United States finds itself contending in, desperate to combat the unknown or unforeseen. The battle ground is the contentious and hugely unknown areas that float above the heavens. The soldiers the best and brightest engineers and physicists that the world has ever known. The front lines are the exponentially long math equations that produce precise launch equations that place objects in orbit around our Earth. Those objects are satellites and their functions are as numerous as the varieties of their uses multiplied by the nations that own them. They control everything from the precise time that is printed on your Starbucks receipt to the exact location that a Tomahawk cruise missile destroys its target. Space based technology is interwoven throughout our government, the military, the U.S. economy, but it’s also provides a level of peace and security to the American people. Even though the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 strictly prohibits the militarization of space, the U.S. Department of Defense has a strategic obligation to protect the U.S. Space Program from its near peer adversaries because of the impacts on the global economy and to the security of United States citizens.

Jim Sciutto conducted a 1-hr documentary on the inevitable war in space. Sciutto interviewed more than ten national security, defense and high-ranking military personnel to include the entire chain of command for space warfare. Sciutto explains that American (citizens, military, and government) depends on our satellites every day. However, our adversaries are targeting America's satellites and are preparing to disarm America from her satellites usage with weapon systems such as lasers, kamikaze satellites, and even kidnapper satellites.

The Space Shuttle Challenger and the Coulmbia Accidents present the risks involved with spacecraft. Both disaster were different outwardly.

Because most meteorites are made largely of iron, larger meteorites can be detected and gathered with a metal detector. Much of the meteorite dust is still magnetic and can be collected with a magnet.

To find out where space debris is a problem, we first must understand and know the different orbit that the Earth has. The Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is between 124 to 1240 miles from the surface.4 This area is

Before we can look into that though, what about the environment in space and all the junk left behind from other launches? Also, building spacecrafts of such size like the Falcon Heavy could impact

We all know that humans have created a lot of garbage on Earth, but did you know that the amount of junk we've created in space is equally extraordinary? This interactive gives you a feel for just how much. The interactive, made by Alex Rasmussen, compares the amount of active satellites (green) with inactive spacecraft (gray) and fragmented space debris (red). As you can see, there are a lot of red dots.

The space debris population consists mostly of explosion fragments, but also includes operating and expended satellites; mission-related objects such as shrouds, clamps, and

Orbital debris come from a variety of human activity in orbital space. One major source of orbital debris comes from launched rockets and man-made satellites[1]. When a rocket is launched, the upper stage booster that gives a spacecraft its final boost into orbit is often left in orbit[2]. These boosters may stay in orbit for decades and if there is still fuel remaining inside them they may explode and create a cloud of debris[2]. One example was when a Chinese Long March 4 exploded on March 11, 2000 [3]. The payloads of the rocket often contribute greatly to the amount of orbital debris as well. In 2009, two satellites smashed into each other and created a cloud of debris with over a 1,000 pieces longer than 10 centimeters [4]. While collisions between debris do not add to the total mass of debris in orbit, they do add to the number of smaller pieces and increase the chances of further collisions in the future[4]. There were even cases where debris was created from intentional destruction of satellites in order to test anti-satellite weapons[5]. The amount of debris is increasing with human activity in space.

The Christian Science Monitor article, PUT THE TITLE HERE, PUT THE LINK HERE, discusses the dangers of space travel with astronaut Tim Peake. According to Peake, a window on the International Space Station (ISS) was damaged by a paint chip sized piece of metal. He contends that the ISS can withstand this type of small hit by debris. However, a strike by larger Space debris could be hazardous. In fact, the ISS had to do a planned maneuver to get out-of-the-way of a larger piece of debris. For many years debris from inoperable satellites has accumulated in Earth's orbit. The trash left from these satellites is posing an increasing threat to current missions. In the year 1998, The National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences equated the danger from space debris to that of a spacecraft’s launch or reentry. And since that time, the amount of debris in space has more than doubled. Another issue that contributes to the danger of the debris, is that it is traveling in space at 17,500 miles per hour. At this rate, even a small piece of debris could cause serious damage. Consequently, there have been many ideas put forth about how to rid Space of all