Header image: Good enough to eat – ‘Outredgeous’ lettuce grown under pink lights on the International Space Station. NASA, CC BY-SA
21.08.2023 - 11:56 / theunconventionalgardener.com / guest
Header image: <a href=«https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/space-junk-orbiting-around-earth-conceptual-233084350?src=» http:>Johan Swanepoel/Shutterstock
Jez Turner, University of Nottingham
There are about 22,000 large objects orbiting the Earth, including working and broken satellites and bits of old rocket from past space expeditions. If you include all the equipment dropped by astronauts while floating in space and the debris from colliding satellites down to around 1cm in size, there are about one million bits of space junk in Earth’s orbit.
These numbers are likely to be underestimates. With more satellites and rockets launching each year, collisions with space junk are becoming more likely. Losing a satellite could mean your TV reception is poor or the weather forecast is a bit less reliable. But it could also mean aeroplanes can’t navigate properly and people aren’t made aware of a tornado that’s bearing down towards them.
A long-term solution is needed to clean up space. The Gateway Earth Development Group is a collection of academics from universities around the world who propose turning this potential catastrophe into a resource. By 2050, Gateway Earth – a fully operational space station with a facility to recycle old satellites and other junk – could be up and running.
There are two main orbits that satellites exist in. Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is about 200 km to 1,000 km above the Earth and is where the International Space Station orbits the planet every 90 minutes, along with thousands of other satellites. At 36,000 km, the forces acting on satellites cause them to stay in the same place within their orbit. This is called Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO). Satellites here are stationary above a single
Header image: Good enough to eat – ‘Outredgeous’ lettuce grown under pink lights on the International Space Station. NASA, CC BY-SA
Word by Matt de Neef, The Conversation
Header image: The greenhouse at McMurdo Station in Antarctica is the only source of fresh food during winter. Eli Duke/Flickr, CC BY-SA
At times, usually when I supposed to be doing something else because I’m a grad student and procrastination of some form seems to be part of the gig, I find myself planning what plants I would include in an imaginary biodome on a inhospitable planet many astronomical units away. Imaginary biodomes are one of my favourite thought exercises – to me it is the perfect fusion of my love of space exploration and my attempts to grow as much as my own food as I can in my small backyard.
Header image: Nematodes play an important role in all biological systems. Shutterstock
Header image: Born in space: I’d rather not come down to Earth. geniusdevil
Header image: Chimpanzee Ham with Trainers. Image credit: NASA
Michael Dixon, University of Guelph
Morgan Saletta, University of Melbourne and Kevin Orrman-Rossiter, University of Melbourne
Header image: Blue Origin
Spend many months attached to the ISS and see how well you grow. [Image credit: NASA, CC BY]
Patrick Major, University of Reading and Chris Scott, University of Reading