NASA Wants Help Reducing Space Trash - Are They Too Late?

We’ve talked about the failures of the recycling system on planet earth. Now NASA wants to get ahead of the space waste problem. Space debris began to accumulate in Earth orbit with the launch of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, into orbit in October, 1957.

NASA is committed to sustainable space exploration. As we prepare for future human space missions, there will be a need to consider how various waste streams, including solid waste, can be minimized—as well as how waste can be stored, processed, and recycled in a space environment so that little or no waste will need to be returned to Earth. - NASA

NASA launched the LunaRecycle Challenge to crowdsource innovative ideas to address the space waste issue. Due March 31, 2025, NASA offers a $3 million prize for best ideas on the design and development of recycling solutions that can reduce solid waste and improve the sustainability of longer-term lunar missions.

While previous efforts focused on the reduction of trash mass and volume, this challenge will prioritize technologies for recycling waste into usable products needed for off-planet science and exploration activities.

The three technological needs that LunaRecycle will address include logistics tracking, clothing, and trash management for habitation; in-space and on-surface manufacturing of parts and products; and in-space and on-surface manufacturing from recycled and reused materials. 

How Much Trash is in Space?

According to the international space statistics tracker, currently, there are 36,860 tracked objects in orbit weighing 13,000 tons, and only about 25 per cent are working satellites.

When you include smaller pieces its much worse. There are estimated to be over 130 million pieces of debris smaller than 1 cm (0.39 in), and approximately one million pieces between 1 and 10 cm.

These include derelict spacecraft (nonfunctional spacecraft and abandoned launch vehicle stages), mission-related debris, and particularly numerous in-Earth orbit, fragmentation debris from the breakup of derelict rocket bodies and spacecraft. In addition to derelict human-made objects left in orbit, space debris includes fragments from disintegration, erosion, or collisions; solidified liquids expelled from spacecraft; unburned particles from solid rocket motors; and even paint flecks. A significant portion of debris is due to rocket upper stages (e.g. the Inertial Upper Stage) breaking up due to decomposition of unvented fuel.

Where Does Space Trash Go?

This dangerous trash zips around Earth at speeds of roughly 10 kilometers per ­second, or more than 22,000 miles per hour. This is worse than playing space invader in your friend’s basement.

Although most debris burns up in the atmosphere, larger debris objects can reach the ground intact. According to NASA, an average of one cataloged piece of debris has fallen back to Earth each day for the past 50 years. A 2022 Nature Astronomy study puts the odds of space junk killing someone on the ground at 10 percent every decade.

There is little commercial incentive to act, since costs are not assigned to polluters, an issue that will become a larger problem as more and more private companies launch objects into space.

During the 1980s, NASA and other U.S. groups attempted to limit the growth of debris. One trial solution was implemented by McDonnell Douglas in 1981 for the Delta launch vehicle by having the booster move away from its payload and vent any propellant remaining in its tanks. This eliminated one source for pressure buildup in the tanks which had previously caused them to explode and create additional orbital debris.

Occasionally satellites are left in orbit when they're no longer useful. Many countries require that satellites go through passivation at the end of their life. The satellites are then either boosted into a higher, graveyard orbit or a lower, short-term orbit.

Active Debris Removal (ADR) technology is currently being tested by various space agencies and companies to remove orbital debris. In May 2024, a NASA report from the Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy (OTPS) introduced new methods for addressing orbital debris. The report, titled Cost and Benefit Analysis of Mitigating, Tracking, and Remediating Orbital Debris.

NASA has developed the Trash Compaction Processing System (TCPS). The current approach to space trash management involves astronauts manually compacting their trash as much as possible and storing it in stowage bags, putting it on another spacecraft and letting it burn up when it enters the Earth’s atmosphere. The TCPS is designed to compact everyday astronaut trash into nine-inch square “tiles” that take up less than one-eighth of the original trash volume. There are even hopes the extra water can be sterilized and reused.

NASA is also funding the development of a network of AI-controlled space lasers to zap orbital debris. NASA is also looking at the use of space tugs, robotic claws, inflatable trash bags, and junk-trapping nets to take care of the trash problem.

Are We Too Late?

A significant challenge with addressing debris pollution is that Earth’s orbits can be considered a global commons that is vulnerable to resource overexploitation.

Projections estimate more than 100,000 new spacecraft will be launched by 2030, compared to the 8,000 currently in orbit. The nearly 6,000 Starlink satellites launched by Elon Musk’s ­SpaceX now make up more than half of the total, and they are part of a planned fleet of up to 42,000.

A 2011 report by the U.S. National Research Council warned NASA that the amount of orbiting space debris was at a critical level. According to some computer models, the amount of space debris "has reached a tipping point, with enough currently in orbit to continually collide and create even more debris, raising the risk of spacecraft failures." The report called for international regulations limiting debris and research of disposal methods.

The recent UNU-EHS Interconnected Disaster Risks 2023 report includes the issue of space debris among its six risk tipping points.

Of course there’s also the Kessler effect or syndrome, named after the Nasa scientist Donald J Kessler, who published a theory that as the number of satellites increased, so would the probability of collisions. As collisions increase, the more debris is produced, and the greater the risk of more collisions. At a critical mass, one collision could trigger an unstoppable cascade of collisions, such that an entire orbit could be rendered useless. Basically think about an out of control pinball.