Adeldor t1_isk1ziq wrote
The garbage here is not around the solar system. It's in the article. Assuming it's not manufactured outrage, the author demonstrates a misunderstanding on the scale of things so extreme it approaches a Monty Python parody.
For his example of Mars, the surface area of which approximates all the land mass of Earth, he writes with apparent concern:
> "... we’ve dumped an estimated15,694 pounds of trash on Mars from the past 50 years of exploration alone."
That's roughly five cars - in an area the size of Asia, Africa, the Americas, Australia, Europe, and Antarctica combined.
For vivid perspective, this image shows the Earth (and Moon, but too close to separate in that single pixel) and its immediate neighborhood in the solar system, taken by Voyager 1 in 1990. Were the whole planet fragmented into garbage, it would make no meaningful difference at such scales.
ramen_poodle_soup t1_isk3zie wrote
It’s also not like the trash on Mars is empty bottles and McDonald’s wrappers, it’s parts of spacecraft that were often necessary for descent. There isn’t exactly a feasible way to bring back a drogue chute and recycle it.
76thColangeloBurner t1_isk8uup wrote
Maybe a stupid question but I’ve always wondered this; could we recycle most space junk if / when we get there?
I understand things left behind couldn’t be taken with. If in 100 or 1000 years we have a colony on Mars couldn’t they realistically recycle that stuff?
SaucyNeko t1_isk9br4 wrote
the first step in logical colonization of mars is to send multiple ships of pure cargo that are unloaded and then deconstructed, easily able to be made into something else
Voodoo_Masta t1_iskgkwf wrote
By the time we get there that stuff may have historic or even archaeological significance. IF we get there, which I don’t think is a guarantee.
SpaceInMyBrain t1_iskw1fh wrote
A lot of that stuff will be in museum displays. Few people have any idea how many pieces of "junk" the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum stored. Even the scraps of landing systems now on Mars will end up in research museums.
When more stuff is landed on Mars - every gram will be precious due to the cost of getting a gram of anything to Mars. It will be utilized early on.
MstrTenno t1_isk9tmy wrote
I would even say that calling parts that are extremely necessary for scientific exploration "trash" is stupid AF.
Plus who cares? So far Earth is the only planet that has an ecosystem. "Polluting" a sterile, irradiated, place that can't support life isn't really damaging anything.
Idk why OP posted this trash article.
KuijperBelt t1_iskd0vc wrote
Your words have just started irreversible Martian climate change.
Greta is en route - shelter in place & prepare for your woke atonement
bucamel t1_iskl9u8 wrote
I was telling someone something similar when i heard this brought up a while ago. You could fit all the stuff we’ve left up there in a large garage/small warehouse.
cjameshuff t1_islkm7w wrote
Another number that gives some perspective: over six times that mass of meteoric material hits Earth each day.
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