Wow, there sure is a lot of junk orbiting our planet. I wonder what an alien race that observed the earth, would think if they saw our beautiful planet with a ring of space junk floating around it? Maybe that is one of the ways to spot a planet with intelligent life on it, it might be surrounded by debris from old satellites, rockets and such. Should we examine planets that are found to have rings around them, more closely? Oh well this was only a thought. When the growing animosity between the Chinese and the U.S. caused the Chinese to demonstrate to us, that they had the capability to blow up satellites from the ground, an awful lot of new debris was created. You have to wonder though, did it really happen that way?. Could it be that the test was not what we thought it was? Sure the satellite blew up, but could if have been because of another reason? Perhaps an explosive was put on board before launch, with the idea that someday, it would be used to blow up the satellite. Speeding up to the current time period, the Chinese launch a rocket and when it gets into space and gets near the satellite, they set off an explosion in the rocket and satellite. Everyone now assumes that they hit the satellite with a missile. Hey this is only speculation, that is what I do here. But there is one thing that most of us can agree on and that is that the Chinese are long range planners.

So here we are, surrounded by pieces of space junk that are orbiting this planet at incredible speeds. There is an awful lot of kinetic energy in these things and who knows if there are satellite weapons hidden in the debris? What you never thought of that? There could be anything up there and we would never know. During the Cold War, stuff was being launched furiously. Is it not conceivable that weapons were sent up, perhaps nuclear ones? I for one, don't believe that either the U.S. or Russia were able to resist the temptation of sending up nukes. These things may be speeding right over our heads now. Here is another thing that most of us don't know. It is claimed by some experts that over twenty nuclear detonations occurred in and near space. Some of these occurred during the Cuban Missile Crisis, at least according to some of the experts. As a matter of fact there is a film, which is narrated by William Shatner, called Nukes in Space, The rainbow bombs, that is said to delve into this topic. Boy that Shatner guy is in everything. I have always said, he is one of the most pleasing actors there are. I enjoy seeing him myself, but I wouldn't want to see him trying to do Hamlet.

Damage To Shuttle Window From Orbiting Paint Chip

We keep hearing about asteroids that may hit this planet and wipe out all life. We are told that we need a system to destroy or divert them before they hit us, because that is what wiped out the dinosaurs. First let's clear up something. The Earth could be hit and has been hit, by meteors and probably comets. If a comet is headed for us, we have no defense, it is too big and too fast. Thankfully, there are far less comets than meteors. With a comet you won't get too much warning. It will range from about a couple of months to maybe a year or so. It is a very noble thought to try and deflect, or blow up, a meteor to save us. The problem is that ANYTHING that can do this, can also be used to advance the state of weapons and you know that this is what will be done. There is always that black program looking for more efficient ways to kill people. So on one hand, you save the human race and on the other you doom it by creating more powerful weapons. We really have to do something about the way we think. It is as if we are genetically flawed. The most important thing on the mind of many governments is how to destroy and not how to build. If the governments of the world could divert the money that is used for defense into social programs, the Earth would be a paradise.

We have all these things speeding around our planet, but are they dangerous? I can't prove it, but I am almost certain that there are nuclear reactors in the debris. Look at the evidence. Remember how some Russian satellites fell back to Earth and had reactors aboard? One in particular that I remember, crashed in Canada. This would indicate to me that there are probably more of these things up there, from both the U.S. and Russia and maybe even some of the emerging space countries. Hey these satellites need power and while the majority of them use solar power, there are those OTHERS. Lets forget about reactors for now. Does the debris itself pose a problem for us? Well the kinetic energy of these things is enormous. After all they are traveling very fast and depending on their mass, a collision could be quite powerful. I saw a figure that stated that an aluminum tube that was 25 cm long and in orbit, would have the energy of 25 sticks of dynamite if it hit something. Can you imagine the power in the bigger pieces?

Space Junk That Fell To Earth

In a way, maybe the debris is just what we need. No, I haven't lost my mind. What I meant was that it might force us to develop some sort of electronic shield to protect our vehicles. As a matter of fact, maybe we already have one and it is secret. NASA, in 2005, admitted that it was working on some sort of system that could be as small as a personal shield for astronauts. I have no doubt that if its development was successful, it could be enlarged. The idea was that opposite charges repel. The idea is that if you can build a powerful enough force field, you can block anything. Radiation would also be blocked, eliminating the need for heavy lead shielding. But lead shielding may be on the way out anyway. There are other materials that are now being experimented with that block radiation. Examples of these are aluminum, liquid hydrogen and advanced plastics. Not all experts agree that building a force field can be accomplished and some are downright skeptical. My answer to this is, "what else is new"? It might be easier to block radiation in space than anywhere else, because it is mostly composed of positively charged particles. Taking this a step further, because you know the military would salivate at the idea of an electronic shield, could we be further ahead on this development than we suspect? I have often said that I believe that NASA is just a front to hide the real military space program and that it is far more advanced than we know. If I am right, they may already have some sort of shielding device.

Right now, the electronic shielding is being proposed for the new base, that we claim we are going to set up on the moon. The idea is to have some sort of electronic emitting devices surround the base and their deflective charges will stream upward, stopping small meteors and radiation from penetrating into the base. The bigger stuff can still get through. This is a start and I am sure that as the years go by, it will be improved to the point, where it may be able to stop much bigger objects and even weapon blasts.

Shielding For Space Station. The Station Is the Heaviest Shielded Space Object Ever.

So how much debris IS floating around the Earth? When a Russian rocket blew up in space in February 2007, the estimate was that it added over 1,000 pieces of junk to the debris field. When China destroyed their satellite, it generated 817 pieces of debris. A news service stated that when China blew up their satellite, that increased the chances of the space station being hit by debris by over 60%. Here is another thing, we are really polluting space. I bet you didn't know that when a rocket delivers its payload, the standard practice is to dump any fuel that is left. Yeah, we have dumped fuel floating around. When we count the pieces of debris, we can only count pieces that are 10cm or larger. That is because the radar can't see anything smaller. The actual count of particles from each of these explosions is probably in the millions. Right now, the only defense that the space station has against collisions is that it can adjust its position in space and it has a thicker shielding than any space object ever had. An estimate of the amount of pieces in the debris field has been made and it is said to be about 10,000, but we have to remember two things:
1. These are only objects larger than 10cm because we can't detect smaller objects
2. This is only an estimate, the actual amount of objects could be far greater, the more objects, the harder they are to track individually.

We have talked about the debris surrounding the Earth, but there are also hundreds of satellites. This is beginning to worry the space agencies of the world. Aside from some sort of force field that we talked of above, NASA is proposing that we straighten our spaceships and spacesuits. They have a couple of ideas on how this can be done. One is a ceramic shielding. This would be used on the walls of the spaceship. If an object does puncture a hole, ball bearings would be used to plug it. Other materials are also being considered. For spacesuit protection a new web type material is being thought about. The space station actually had to be moved once to dodge a collision with a foot clamp that was dropped by an astronaut.

A new radar is being put into place by NASA that is said to be able to detect objects in space that are 2 inches or larger. It is only a matter of time before we either have to figure out how to get rid of the space junk, or build ships that are impervious to collisions with it.