Download Teacher's Notes  Download Student's Worksheet We think of space as an empty and lonely place – a pure vast vacuum with nothing in it. In the case of planet Earth, this is no longer the case. In near space, just above our atmosphere, tens of millions of man-made objects and assorted trash and junk are orbiting at high velocity. Why does this matter? The reason is the speed at which space junk travels. NASA, the North American Space Agency, estimates that fragments from some 1,000 or so commercial, military and exploratory spacecraft now ring our planet. They estimate that there are about half a million fragments over a centimetre long in orbit with tens of millions more that are larger than a millimetre.  Most of these smaller fragments include such things as droplets of coolant oils and other chemicals. But when a small drop of liquid collides with another object in orbit, it can explode with all the destructive force of a high impact bomb.

Analysts suggest that most of these particles collide with an impact velocity of 36,000km per hour. This is enough to do serious damage to the protective hulls of most satellites and spacecraft.  Space junk has been orbiting the planet since the first rockets blasted out of the Earth’s atmosphere from Russia and the US in the days of The Great Space Race.  However, the sheer volume of flotsam, jetsam and detritus in space is now threatening the future safety of space missions of any kind.

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Glossary

Parchment (n) – material used in the past for writing.
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