Thursday, February 19, 2009

Humans!

What a mess! Experts ponder space junk problem.

Egads! Talk about your environmental hazards! Do humans just naturally like to live in trash heaps? What the hell is up with that? Do we just not have the mental capacity to think ahead? Think about the future and what we're going to do once we've fouled our nest sufficiently that no one can live in it anymore. So far, this is the only planet we KNOW we can live on and we seem hell bent on thoroughly trashing it. What do we do then? Or do we just go on not caring because its not our generation that has to worry about it? What happens when that generation is born? Do we leave it up to the one's that it's going to matter to to come up with some way of salvaging it. Leave it to our how ever many great grandchildren to clean up after us? That's a real nice way to think about things.

Anyway, how's this for a suggestion: send up two space craft, like the shuttles, able to maneuver and sling a fine web between them and then let them sweep the main orbital lanes. Sort of like this:

Okay, so my drawing is awful, but you get the point, right? Just a thought.

As an exercise in futility, why don't you all put your ideas out there for a space clean-up project?

9 comments:

Judy said...

Your solution seems to me better than trying to tie ballons to the debris. I can't begin to even imagine that!

Jeannie said...

OMG- I think your drawing is just awesome!!!

Unfortunately, just as with the economic disasters and global warming, we won't do anything about the space debris until we absolutely have to. :(

Some Kinda Wonderful said...

Thanks guys, but where are your clean-up ideas? :) I wonder why the "experts" are making this so much more difficult than it has to be? Ask a woman how to clean up a mess. They will tell you how to do it in the most economical and effecient way, right? Balloons indeed! Thats just too goofy. I with you Judy. I can't begin to imagine how that would work. Why can't we gather it all up and recycle it?

Some Kinda Wonderful said...

There is probably enough junk up there to build a whole nother space station, don't you reckon?

pamwax said...

How about while we clean up space we each think of ways we can clean up our planet too.

Jeannie said...

Hummm...that's a tough question. I'd start by limiting the number of satellites we send to space.

Will this debris just float around forever or will it eventually fall and burn up in the atmosphere?

Some Kinda Wonderful said...

I'm guessing that most of the stuff up there is small enough to burn up but also things that are big enough to get through the atmosphere and cause trouble down here on earth.

Mr. Mike said...

If it wasn't so expensive for rockets, I would say send the garbage flying into the Sun where it would be incinerated. It is our destiny to make the Sun nature's trash can :)

Some Kinda Wonderful said...

That's a great idea Mr. Mike, but I'm still leaning toward recycling the trash. That solution just seems so elegant and tidy all at the same time.