Moon Is About To Be Hit With Space Junk, Who’s Job Is It To Clean It Up?
The Moon will soon get hit with space junk, but whose job is it to clean it up?
It's one thing when a piece of junk is on the side of 131 here in Grand Rapids, Michigan, there is someone from the city or county whose job it is to pick it up so no one runs into it. Who is in charge of cleaning up space debris?
Moon Will Soon Get Hit By Space Junk
A few weeks ago space experts were saying that SpaceX had some debris that was going to slam into the Moon. According to WOOD, asteroid tracker Bill Gry has confirmed the debris as not being from SpaceX but possibly a third stage of a Chinese rocket that was sent to the moon back in 2014.
The debris set to hit the Moon is traveling at 5600 mph so obviously, that is gonna leave a mark. Unfortunately, it is going to strike a portion of the Moon telescopes will not be able to see so it will take a bit to learn just how much damage the debris will cause.
How Much Space Junk is Orbiting the Earth?
I had to do some digging but according to NASA, there are about 27,000 pieces of space junk orbiting the earth. Some pieces are too small to harm any spacecraft while others are big enough they have to be tracked for safety purposes just like meteors.
There is a whole department with NASA whose job it is to track large pieces of space junk. Some flight plans have to be made to avoid the larger pieces that are orbiting the Earth.
Whose Job Is It To Clean Up Space Debris?
There is a company that has developed a craft that is designed to clean up space debris or junk as I like to call it. The company is called Astroscale Inc.
Astroscale has developed several spacecraft that were built to be space garbage trucks and has recently tested one that works. Experts are concerned that one such commercial craft is not enough to tackle the job but the company building it believes you need to get one going in space in order for there to be another craft.
The world relies on satellites for phones, computers, and entertainment use not to mention all the country's different security reasons for having satellites orbit the Earth. It doesn't have to be a very big piece of debris to cause damage to a satellite or spacecraft and that is why it needs to be removed.
Is There a Market for Clearing Space Junk?
Satellites and spacecraft cost billions of dollars so most certainly there is a need to clean space junk out of the Earth's orbit. The same will for other planets where junk is in orbit.
I'm sure there is a market for those with deep pockets who can build space junk removal vehicles and who knows, you may be able to get contracted to clean for space programs and those looking to shuttle people in space. No one is going to want their crafts damaged because of space junk. My guess is the repairs would be astronomical.