I bet you haven't wondered about pollution of space. Yes, man
has been polluting space ever since Yuri Gagarin (first man in space)
saw Earth in its entirety.

Earth is not only orbited by satellites but also by paint particles,
pieces of glass and even apparatus used by astronauts in the past.
These may be small (that's what we think – I mean maybe they are not)
but note that if ever a spanner were to hit an astronaut's face shield,
the latter would break down into fragments. The astronaut would, for
his part, go straight up to the heavens (or down to hell) and there would also be even more pollutants in space (the shield fragments).

Now, for those of you who have ever bothered to reflect upon space
pollution, did you know that microscopic fragments also make up the
space pollutant family? I didn't until I read an article (link below)
from The Guardian newspaper.

Yeah, there are even more things out there that are
considered as pollutants. I read about particles invisible to the
human eye and undetectable by Earth radars and the best thing - they
have the explosive power of a bullet!!!

With more and more satellites, probes and men in space, no doubt that pollution is going to rise. We really have to prevent this. How? Until now space pollution has not proved to be a major threat to us, the
inhabitants of the earth so naturally there does not appear to be any
hurry to find a solution. NASA, though, has put a small probe in a swarm
of space debris so as to know them better. But as I just said, nobody
really cares about space pollution right now, although I should think
that in some fifty years (ok, maybe I'm exaggerating), this may well
transform into one of those many threats to life on Earth!

If you have read this column to this point and are still undisturbed about space pollution please make a final effort and read this
paragraph (my last attempt to pass the message).

Astronauts' faeces are also (well in the past they were) released in
space. Imagine me (a cool and proud guy) walking one hot day back
home. All of a sudden, 'splash', I receive an astronaut's faeces on top
on my head!

Now that you are (finally) convinced about the main adverse effect of space pollution, read this article again and trust me, you will be
looking up at the sky and waiting for something to fall down, 'Splash'!

Not Scientific Science Archive

NotScientific

07.10.04 Front Page

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