Are we trashing space?

Are we trashing space?

​Jose Sandoval

​On Earth, we have mountains of garbage, plastics that take thousands of years to disintegrate, and oil spills from drilling into the soil or underneath the ocean.

Poll

Would humans pollute Mars if we were to establish a colony there?

• Strongly agree

• Agree

• Disagree

• Strongly disagree

People have been exploring the surface of Mars for over 50 years. Nations have sent 18 human-made objects to Mars over 14 separate missions. Over the decades of Martian exploration, humankind has left many pieces of debris on the planet's surface.

Debris on Mars comes from three main sources: discarded hardware, inactive spacecraft, and crashed spacecraft.

15,694 pounds of human trash can be found on Mars.

15,694 pounds of human trash can be found on Mars.

Open Ended

What do you think is the impact of humans polluting Mars? Is it a positive or negative thing?

Six missions landed humans on the Moon, beginning with Apollo 11 in 1969.

Open Ended

What items do you think humans have left on the Moon?

There are hundreds of human-made objects on the moon:

-crashed spacecraft

-lunar rovers

-tv cameras

-golf balls

-artwork

-family portrait

-around 100 bags of human waste.

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Open Ended

What do you think is the definition of space junk?

According to NASA, Earth's orbit has more than 23,00 objects larger than 4 inches, another half million objects larger than that. Including dead spacecraft, spent rocket boosters, lost gear from space missions (glove, camera, blanket, wrench, and toothbrush), random bits or wrecked gear, paint flecks, bits of metal, frozen propellant, and lots of screws and bolts

.

Poll

The accumulation of "space debris" in Earth's orbit poses a significant threat to humans, space, and the ground.

• Strongly agree

• Agree

• Disagree

• Strongly disagree

Poll

How severe do you think the space junk problem is on a scale from 1 -5? (1 = not severe and 5 = very severe)​

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• 1

• 2

• 3

• 4

• 5

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Open Ended

How do you feel about humans' impact on our solar system regarding pollution?