• Question: what happens if ou leave junk in space

    Asked by anon-276911 on 21 Jan 2021.
    • Photo: Liam Taylor

      Liam Taylor answered on 21 Jan 2021:

      Great question! It’s actually really dangerous. There are about 34,000 bits of space junk that are big enough to have an impact. And, there are currently more “dead” satellites in space than “alive” ones. If we don’t find a way to clean it up, this could all bump into the “alive” satellites and stop them from working. Satellites are very important – they help us communicate, tell us the weather, and are important for navigation (e.g. GPS). They’re also very very expensive – many millions of pounds for each one and it could take years to replace them.

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