Space Part 4 (Space Junk in the Orbital Trunk)

Episode 70

The U.S. Space Surveillance Network tracks over 23,000 pieces of debris the size of a soft ball or larger. An additional 500,000 objects larger than a centimeter also orbit Earth, and there are millions of even smaller fragments which we cannot trace. We stand on the edge of a potential technological disaster if our satellites are destroyed by our own garbage, and international space agencies are starting to take notice. Join us as we talk about the technical issues of space junk as well as the moral implications of littering uninhabited spaces. Why do we only seem to care about garbage when it affects living creatures? Do we have a moral responsibility to clean up our messes? Who is going to pay for all this? How can thinking about space junk make us better stewards of our own little corners of the world?

 

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produced by Zack Jackson
music by Zack Jackson and Barton Willis