Space Age Problem We Didn’t Bargain On – Trapped on Earth By Our Own Stupid Mess? #poem #poetry #space #NASA

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NASA’s computer-generated image representing space debris as seen from high Earth orbit.

Space is vast and empty,

But not space close at hand,

Not the space around the Earth.

Our orbit now is jammed.

Every satellite we launch

Will someday be defunct

And hang above us, orbiting,

As billion dollar junk.

Everyone who’s serious

About the new space age

Has a plan for dealing with

Our quickly-closing cage.

Perhaps we’ll net the pieces,

Or blast each till it falls

To burn up like a meteor

In our atmospheric wall.

The million pieces of debris

Could trap us on our planet

Since even just a fleck of paint

Could crash a ship titanic.

Where is ET, we wonder?

Why don’t aliens

come to us?

Perhaps they’re trapped on their own worlds

By spheres

of their

space junk.

Kate Rauner

The scifi movie Gravity began with space junk smashing a Shuttle, and that could happen in real-life. Read about laser and giant electric whip proposals to clean up near-Earth space. There’s a video here.