December 14, 2010

Right now at this very second there are over a half of a million pieces of space junk speeding around Earth at speeds up to 15,000 miles per hour. This debris isn't just a problem of looks it's a real danger to satellites, space shuttles, and even the space station. Going as fast as they do they can puncture right through the toughest of surfaces.

This garbage dump has been made from years of space missions where we left behind everything from small bolts, to old satellites to large rockets and have never looked back.

RAND has recently done a report on what it would take to clean up this massive mess in space and is calling for a super fund to be made to research how it can be accomplished and to hold both public and private companies accountable for the waste they create.

One of the main hurdles, other than the cleanup itself, is convincing people it's a necessary problem that needs attention without the site of the problem. You can say a million gallons of oil has been spilled, but it doesn't really take effect until you actually see it.