When we run out of easy landfill solutions will we send rockets loaded with garbage into outer space?
924904
Firstly our wastes contains many substances like several kinds of elements for e magnesium, iron, cobalt, etc.. If we send them into space, we will lose the possibility to recycle the wastes and reuse the elements or compounds in them to manufacture other things. However if we want to get rid of them by space, this costs a whole lot of money since for sending 1 g of waste, about nearly hundred times the amount of energy needed to create that waste will be lost to propel the waste into space. So it would be illogical to do that since we would be wasting our precious energy sources, our money and also polluting our earth more by the burning of fuels to propel the rockets into space.
496612
Some of it floats in space; much of it orbits Earth. You can find it on the surfaces of Venus and Mars and twenty tons of it is actually parked on the Moon! Some call it space trash, others refer to it as space junk or space debris. All three terms identify the same items -- man-made objects remaining in space though they no longer serve any useful purpose. Mankind¹s journey into space began in 1957 when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. Since that time more than 4,000 satellites have been launched into orbit. With so much traffic travelling into space, is it any wonder that a little trash has been left behind?
889751
Possible, yes.  Likely, no.  We know the orbits of the satellites we put up pretty well.\n\nHowever, there IS a lot of junk orbiting the Earth - pieces of spacecraft, nuts, bolts, etc - and they are orbiting fast.  Being hit by a fast-moving piece of space trash is something they have to keep in mind and try to account for when building shuttles.
377213
Yes. If we don't destroy it ourselves, eventually the Sun will burn out and Earth will freeze (all stars eventually burn out), making in uninhabitable for humans. I suppose there is a chance we will have technology to help us live in those conditions (or maybe we will evolve to live in thos conditions) by then, but I doubt it.
558027
This is a question that should be on everyone's mind. Trash especially stuff that is not bio-degradable, is a threat to the very existence of this planet. I would like to think that environmentally friendly ways of completely destroying trash will have been found.
546730
To a degree, this is technically possible.  The glitch comes from the fact that garbage accumulates faster than it rots.  The net effect is that you cannot produce enough methane fast enough to burn other incoming garbage.  It is possible to expedite the process by building digesters and feed them with a bacteria developed just for this purpose but that is not economically feasible today.  Biodigesters are used in industry for treating water prior to releasing it back to the environment.  There may be other uses which fall within the realm of economic feasibility but what you propose is just not economically feasible on the scale that you would need.  Good thinking, though.  Maybe someday you can come up with an economical answer to the problem.
257901
not for a long time. nasa doesn't have the funds to do any hugely major projects like it used to. it costs a lot to put stuff into space, and as far as mars is concerned, they're not about to launch
19689
I say we spend billions in space.  Here is my reasoning, "Idle hands are the devils playthings", and if we're not doing constructive we're going to do something terribly stupid like blow ourselves off the face of the earth.\nSecondly, the survival of the human race depends on reaching out to space and colonizing other planets.  Whether it can be done or not is another question, but waiting for ourlseves to blow ourselves to kingdom come isn't a option I'm interested in taking.  As for evolving, thats entirely correct, because if we push out to somewhere new we can leave behind the things that we could never get over at home (like trivial matters of me being black or you being white, etc).  Some humans just wont let things go foward, and if thats the case why not leave them behind?  Its what America was about when it started, except there isn't anywhere else to go except up now days.  Otherwise we're just recycling ourselves on this planet, with one government falling so another can rise up which thinks its infallable.  Still, despite all that, we've got to be practical about space travel instead of believing we'll get there in 10 to 20 years.  Just because it wont have for us isn't a reason not to do it either, making others miserable just because your miserable is no way to go through life, even if the people your making miserable are five generations down the line.
1166435
Yes.  The sun will blow up in about 4.5 billion years, taking the earth with it.  Odds are humans will have been gone long before that though.
564475
for a long time if we hurry and grow up and learn responsible, sustainable living practices.  no more two kids per family, no more mcdonalds, no more flushing my toilet that uses 0.8 gallons of perfectly fine potable water per flush.  neither buying goods imported from anywhere, we would have to make things for ourselves, or at least keep things local.  no more tritium seeping out of our reactors.  producing our own food, namely agricultual goods, instead of relying on corporate greed.  our 1 person per vehicle goingto work everyday thing would have to stop, and a revolutionary mass transportation system developed.  FUSION would have to be viable, because we cannot keep on the path of mining our earth for things we just use up like coal, oil, titanium, gold, diamonds.  i'm not saying we would have to go back to our hunter/gatherer roots, but our disposable lifestyles need to be halted.  we could be a civilized planet that makes due with moderation with the basics.  but if we continue the way we are right now, the very, very wealthy people/families (saudi royal family for example) will engineer a mass kill off (big war) so that they can stay in power on a suitable living sphere.  the human race is compareable to a 72 hour bacterial culture in a petri dish.......we will use up our resources within 72 hours, and at the same time be producing toxins that will kill/mutate us (our own poop, our man made chemicals, etc.)  fusion, and a little help from aliens, and we could change everything.  hope is what i've got; that we will figure it out sooner rather than later.  keep learning, knowledge is pure power.
26371
Actually yes, they are planning a "Space Elevator"\n(Warning, while source below is mostly acccurate, the scientific papers could take years to get through)
564994
Not the easiest thing in the world to get to O3 from H20...\n\nPlus large ice balls in our atmosphere have an unpleasent history of killing things...
216730
They don't care about what happens to the Earth,but\nIF everyone littered,then the world would be a big garbage\ncan,and it will get hot,and the sun would make the Earth\nsmell just like Garbage Dump!\n\nGross! KEEP THE WORLD CLEAN EVERYONE! PLEASE!
356639
I hope so...\n\nI would like to imagine a future of space travel for the human race.\n\nBut I have no expereince in the field to offer suggestions.
5054
Ok. The guy or chick above me just lied to you. Their is such government funding for that kind of "transportation". Not all space junk is magnetic. \nSpace junk travles at a viriety of speeds. It also depends on which atmospheric zone it is in. There is only one way for us to stop space junk, that is to stop sending things in to the atmosphere! It is simple as that. Sending things such as space shuttles is killing our ozone as well. They want us to stop but they are helping a big part as well. Also they want to fine people for littering, well look at them letting space shuttle debrie fly off in to our atmosphere! It is as simple as that.
325229
Although it is possible, It would take a lot of effort and materials to do this. There is also the chance the rocket could fail and could even explode in midair, and I don't think we want to see that.\n\nThere could be a better but similar plan though.
907818
Of course not. NASA spent billions of dollars on styrofoam rockets and plastic movie sets. And Congress let them.