Where Do Satellites Go When They Die?

You fail to realize that these images are not in proportion. The space around the earth is far from being cluttered; these satellites are too small in proportion with the earth to really matter. Crashing into one of them is just a matter of bad luck.

Nice post, Dale Gribble.

"Once a tiny speck of paint that had come loose from a satellite punched a quarter-inch hole in the window of a space shuttle! Imagine going all the way into space, carrying out your given mission and then succumbing to the wrath of a speck of paint. Nightmare."

that doesn't make sense...

in phsyics, they told us that all objects give an equal and opposite reaction, but also pointed out, that objects can't give more than they have, and can't take more than they have

so it wouldn't make sense that a speck of paint could cause a quarter inch hole in a window, a thick thick window, of a space shuttle..

anyone care to explain it?

Maybe it's just me...but I doubt this is as catastrophic as some people claim. Firstly, the concept of pollution involves an environment being damaged. Something that really can't happen in space, as there is no environment beyond a vacuum.

Secondly...the private sector has produced, and flown, manned spacecraft. It may have been more or less a gimmick, but it proves it can be done. One might expect that the instant the private sector realizes there's money to be made in space...they'll get there as quickly and as cheaply as possible. All that "junk" floating around up there...what if we decided naval salvage laws applied?

There's a lot of material up there just waiting to be picked up and brought back to Earth.

With so much junk in space how do they even find space to put new satellites up there??

thanks yaar!!!!!!!
neva knew dere was sooooo much junk in space. I basically love the space and thr theories related to it and your was one of the best ones I found till date

Hi there, great post!
I found it after doing some research on the recent collision between US and Russian Comms satellites.

I've trackbacked to you on a post I wrote last night on where satellites go to die; graveyard orbits and spacecraft cemeteries.

Cheers!

The ring of Satan now surrounds our planet, we are not happy polluting our planet we have to polute space aswell.. stop now...

This is a great representation of a little known ecological danger, one that needs to be included on the list of things that require immediate planning to deal with.

This is quite some sensationalism. Way to make the satellites look HUGE. You suck.

OMG is there really that much junk in space?

www.privacy.es.tc

Wow now that's space junk!

couldn't we then find inhabited planets by looking for planets with a ton of junk orbiting around them? maybe our telescopes are not capable of resolving that level of detail, but still, something to work towards.

Why the fuck can I never see any pictures on this damn website? Shitty...

This would be a good reason to develop worm-hole technology. Or some kind of space vacuum cleaner...

Precious metals fill our skies while down on earth, manhole covers get stolen.

Wow that's rather sad, not only have we polluted our planet but also the immediate space around it.

These pictures are showing the satellites as much bigger than the state of Alaska. If the satellites were drawn to scale, we wouldn't even see them. We put billions of pieces of plastic trash under the ground each day, and you're worried about 12,000 bits of metal orbiting our planet? C'mon, this is just fearmongering.

Typical human behavior, fucking up everything around them

Very cool post! It might be responsible though to point out to your readers that the satellites above are not drawn to scale!

I don't know why anyone would be particularly surprised by these images - we don't care where we dump out trash 'down here' so why should we care what happens 'up there'? It's not like anyone is going to ground us unless we tidy up the mess!

I have wondered just how much garbage is floating above us. Okay, most of it would burn up on reentry so isn't a danger down here, but to space vehicles or astronauts doing a space walk? Well, it must be really fun with bits of debris zipping about like you're caught in the crossfire of a gang war!

Past generations when satellite technology and space exploration were new will have left tons of garbage up there, but we're supposed to be much wiser and more aware now, so I wonder how much is still dumped up there once it's passed it's useful life? Do we still just sweep things under the carpet hoping no one will ever see it? I hope not, but somehow I'm pretty sure we do!

Steve N. Lee
author of eco-blog http://www.lionsledbysheep.com
and suspense thriller 'What if...?'

Ha! Like the movie Wall-E.

Although you highlight something that may indeed need to be taken care of... i can't help thinking, haven't you got other things to worry about, rather than aliens being unable to tell us apart frm saturn???... I mean these pictures are just computer generated right? Quit whingeing.

@nobody important,

I couldn't see pics on here for the longest time I tried IE, Firefox, and IE Tab in Firefox surprisingly they work in Google Chrome. Try that. As for this post thats nuts i can't believe that there is that much crap floating around up there.

the paint chip story is not true. You sensationalized a ding. There was no hole. note true.

So an catastrophic sequential destruction of all of our man made satellites is inevitable at some point, but not predictable. All it will take is one of the current satellites being hit with a small meteor. However your last comment was ridiculous, unfounded and cause a large lack of perceived credibility, you should watch speculative flaws like this in the future to help avoid harsh criticism.

Too many satellites.