--- title: Scientists Sound Alarm Over a Growing Trash Problem in Space description: Even tiny pieces of junk can pose serious risks to astronauts. Scientists call for a global treaty to eliminate increasing orbiting debris. canonical: https://time.com/6262389/space-junk-increasing-problem/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-03-13T17:59:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:03:38.351Z article:section: Science og:title: Scientists Sound the Alarm Over a Growing Trash Problem in Space og:description: Even tiny pieces of junk can pose serious risks to astronauts og:url: https://time.com/6262389/space-junk-increasing-problem/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt30857ee47c7402a6/698a3b154ee2624a9631b307/Space-debris.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5333 og:image:height: 3000 og:image:alt: Space Debris In Earth Orbit og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Scientists Sound the Alarm Over a Growing Trash Problem in Space twitter:description: Even tiny pieces of junk can pose serious risks to astronauts twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt30857ee47c7402a6/698a3b154ee2624a9631b307/Space-debris.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Scientists Sound the Alarm Over a Growing Trash Problem in Space > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Innovator of the Year: Gregory Robinson and The James Webb Space Telescope [Watch (HLS stream): Innovator of the Year: Gregory Robinson and The James Webb Space Telescope](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/vvFzrrBk.m3u8) (4:23)  _Published 2022-12-07. TIME's 2022 Innovator of the Year is Gregory Robinson and The James Webb Telescope_  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Mar 13, 2023 5:59 PM UTC  An artist's conception of just some of the trillions of pieces of debris orbiting the Earth An artist's conception of just some of the trillions of pieces of debris orbiting the Earth Getty Images/iStockphoto  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Mar 13, 2023 5:59 PM UTC Sixty-six years ago, there was just a single human-built object in Earth orbit. It was Sputnik, the Soviet Union’s—and the world’s—first satellite, launched on Oct. 4, 1957\. Now take a moment and try to guess how many objects—including active satellites, defunct satellites, and bits of debris from all of that space traffic—are currently circling the planet. Have you made your guess? Good. Your answer is wrong. Or let’s put it this way: it’s wrong unless the figure you guessed is 100 trillion. That’s the jaw-dropping number cited by an international team of researchers writing [an open letter](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adg8989) in last week’s issue of _Science,_ calling for a global treaty to curb the amount of satellites and rubbish that have been forming an ever-growing debris belt in low-Earth orbit for more than three generations now. The researchers report that there are currently 9,000 active satellites in orbit—a number expected to grow to over 60,000 by 2030\. The 100 trillion figure includes everything from spent boosters and stray bolts, to metal flecks and floating paint chips that went along with launching all of that hardware. And don’t think something as small as a paint chip is harmless. Orbiting the Earth at 28,200 km/hr (17,500 mph), so small a piece of rubbish can strike a spacecraft or other orbiting object like a bullet. Astronauts spacewalking outside the International Space Station report that the skin of the 25-year-old orbiting lab looks in some spots as if it has been hit by buckshot. The astronauts routinely have to shelter in place in one of the attached Soyuz or SpaceX spacecraft to wait out a passing swarm of space debris in case the station gets catastrophically struck and they have to bail out in a hurry. Ultimately, all of this debris will fall back to Earth and incinerate in the atmosphere, but we’re replacing the junk at a faster pace than its orbit can decay. Each of the seven researchers writing in _Science_ are experts in one of two fields: satellite technology and ocean plastic pollution. Why the latter? Because, as they write, the mess we’ve made of the oceans—witness the [great Pacific garbage patch](https://theoceancleanup.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch/#:~:text=The%20GPGP%20covers%20an%20estimated,times%20the%20size%20of%20France.), a mass of floating junk that measures twice the area of Texas—mirrors the mess we’re in the process of making in space. The difference: we’ve had centuries to foul the oceans and only decades to do the same in space, and yet we’re not wasting time. --- ### More from TIME --- “As a marine biologist I never imagined writing a paper on space,” said Heather Koldewey, a senior marine technical adviser at the Zoological Society of London and a coauthor of the letter, in a statement that accompanied its release. “But through this collaborative research \[we\] identified so many parallels with the challenges of tackling environmental issues in the ocean. We just need to get better at the uptake of science into management and policy.” The researchers see hope for space in the progress that has been made so far in cleaning up the oceans—or at least in nations agreeing to try. In March 2022, world leaders representing 170 nations signed a global plastics treaty at the [United Nations Environment Assembly](https://www.unep.org/environmentassembly/), in an attempt to curb continued dumping of plastics in the oceans and eliminate what is already there. Other negotiations are already underway on a more ambitious [Global Plastics Treaty](https://www.plasticstreaty.org/). Similar initiative should be taken now, the authors write, to implement treaties that hold both government and commercial space launch services liable for minimizing the amount of debris their launches create, deorbiting satellites after they’ve reached the end of their functional life, and developing technologies to clean up at least some of the 100-trillion-strong rubbish swarm. “Most nation states have neglected to implement the necessary local space regulations that could promote long-term equitable and sustainable use of Earth’s orbit,” the authors of the letter write. “There is no international treaty that seeks to minimize orbital debris.” That must change—and fast. “To avoid repeating the mistakes that have left the high seas—and all who depend on them—vulnerable, we need collective cooperation, informed by science, to develop a timely, legally binding treaty to protect Earth’s orbit.” A species that is smart enough to have gotten itself to space—an order of magnitude more difficult than initially learning to sail (and foul) the oceans—should be smart enough not to make a mess of things once it gets there. As Moriba Jah, coauthor and associate professor of aerospace engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, put it in a statement, “Marine debris and space debris are both an anthropogenic detriment that is avoidable.” ## Transcript We promised a telescope that was a hundred times more powerful than what we've had before, but not only, is it working. This is better than we expected, time to self. James Webb begins a voyage back to the birth of the universe. The first science images that we released in July the president, rolling this out. That's a pretty big deal. The world is really end of this telescope and is along for the ride and wants to know, what the next stop on the road trip, is When was the the real driver? Let's get this thing done. Whatever it takes their issues along the way long before I came on and and no one religion. When you want to do both things, that's really would be some unprecedented risk. And you just try to minimize as much as possible. That's what the team did. They are, they did an excellent job with it. We do a lot of comparisons to I will rightfully so because then I was supposed to be Premier for 30 years Weber's. Probably twice the size of Hubble close to half. The mass was Bubbles and Laura, KB and web is a million miles out, but to see the difference in Clarity and the difference of what you see, and the difference in how quickly you can get the same image, it was thrilling to see those. For Dave Mustaine there's no joystick. It's it's not like anybody's, you know what a little more, the left little the right, it's more like a playlist. We have a very detailed playlist or set of recipes. Every minute of the time is scripted, is in one of those recipes and we schedule the telescope that a week at a time. On launch day, I was here for us. The moment that was so beautiful. That first. Oh my gosh. Things are just going to go. Well on this project was the separation from the launch vehicle that's when this crowd cheered for life. I did not. I don't know if that was just confidence in the team and and the systems and the thrill of Separation than solo race. The Star by blowing, now taking its pursuit of cosmological Discovery and it was the first day that we got to see the images that were going to go public. We all crowded around the corner and it was just gorgeous. For science perspective, star formation. And you're getting a sea star cluster formation within Galaxy. I'm taking out, but I'm also just like, oh my gosh, this is going to show everybody that it works. Off work would fix my whole life and there was no better seen than to see a bunch of Geeks. Just fall over themselves with joy. It's a new window into the history of our universe and today we're going to get a glimpse of the first light to shine through that window light from other worlds orbiting Stars far beyond her own president spending time to talk to us about Webb and roll this out to the world quite quite satisfied, a real sense of our own Galaxy formed our own solar system than our sun on our planets form or not. And lastly, I think we're going to learn so many new questions that we have to go off and try to answer. 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