Thread: Launching Garbage into space...

Hey guys,

I need this for a persuasive essay we are doing at school. so pick a side and argue for it... it will be something to talk about and it will really help me too...

by the way, i am on the pro side of launching trash into space...
i am not presenting any arguements now, but i will wait to see if anyone is interested.

i hope this will be good.

bah...I have plenty of reasons but do your own homework heh. Think.

(oh and I said no)

The polls are working!

I wouldnt dump in space, instead we should recycle more, and think of ways to reduce the amount of garbage at landfills.

I'd like to hear how you'd argue for launching it.... can't think of any good reasons myself

Originally posted by Hammer
I'd like to hear how you'd argue for launching it.... can't think of any good reasons myself

Well to put my arguements into points:
1. By launching garbage into space, we will not be accumulating garbage on the earth.
2. There are somethings that are non-recyclable... these would have to be dealt with somehow... burning it would cause pollution... so we would have to bury them.
3. Not all waste are organic or decomposable... so by burying them, we are just wasting time, resources and polluting the ground...
4. We dont have a lot of "space traffic", so we dont haveto worry too much about people crashing into floating barrels of trash...
5. We could launch the garbage DEEEEEP into space or even towards the sun... (i should have put an option for that...) i think that is the best thing to do - the sun will take care of it.

those are my points so far... hope someone will argue against it - i can be sure of it...

and kermi3, i am not making you do my homework... i am just making a place to absorb ideas, because i didnt find another place to get them...
and if anyone knows a direct link to a website related to this, i would be grateful...
(i said if you know it... dont search or anything cause i already got some by searching...)

>>1. By launching garbage into space, we will not be accumulating garbage on the earth.
So we make it someone elses problem, and deny all knowledge?

>>4. We dont have a lot of "space traffic", so we dont haveto worry too much about people crashing into floating barrels of trash...
Now that made me laugh, I must admit oh, what, you were serious??

>>5. We could launch the garbage DEEEEEP into space
As per item 1
>>or even towards the sun...
and how will the sun take to many years of polution? What affects will it have on it? Remember, if the sun goes, so do we.

ok then allow me to bring the garbage back to earth....

1. By launching garbage into space, we will not be accumulating garbage on the earth.

True, can't argue with that.

2. There are somethings that are non-recyclable... these would have to be dealt with somehow... burning it would cause pollution... so we would have to bury them.

This is very true. A better solution would be not to make that kind of garbage...

3. Not all waste are organic or decomposable... so by burying them, we are just wasting time, resources and polluting the ground...

Can't leave them on the surface (and I'm getting to why space is bad, I promise)

4. We dont have a lot of "space traffic", so we dont haveto worry too much about people crashing into floating barrels of trash...

Every day our space traffic grows. There is so much space junk there now...rumble, dead satallites etc that it already causes issues. This makes it especially hard to launch. Putting trash in low orbit doesn't help because then we have to go through it to get up. Putting it high is much more expensive, and if we ever want to get off the planet we have to go through it. A piece of garbage in space is very dangerous if it hits something, it is after all traveling at insanely high speeds. (I don't remember the number, but i know it's atleast hundreds of miles a seconds. oh i looked some up, the fastest I can find is 17,500 mph, though it doesn't say it's the fastest)

Our space traffic isn't going to decrease...hopefully it will continue to increase.

5. We could launch the garbage DEEEEEP into space or even towards the sun... (i should have put an option for that...) i think that is the best thing to do - the sun will take care of it.

Can you say EXPENSIVE ??? sure it cost resources to bury stuff...but it also takes a lot of resourses to put it into space. You have to get a craft travelling at 5mi/second. That's very expensive and risky.


Lets say for example you were putting radioactive or hazordous material up into space and the craft blew up. Or the material didn't go into just the right orbit and trajectory and it starts falling down to earth. Congradualtions you have just covered the earth with an air burst of nuclear waste. Fun for all!

Anyway I'm sure that I can think of more...but my mind is tired. How's that for a start?

I still feel like I'm helping you on a homework assignment you should think about yourself. Don't use a website, think. But I'm too tired to defend your work/honor code now.

why not just launch it all into the sun? then there will be no more problems of trash on earth or in space!

Throw it in space. Jeez, it's space, nothing is there. I'd rather
have it floating towards Pluto than stinking up my air.

There'll always be garbage. There'll always be a lot of it. We
should launch every current landfill towards Pluto right now.

Lets say for example you were putting radioactive or hazordous material up into space and the craft blew up. Or the material didn't go into just the right orbit and trajectory and it starts falling down to earth. Congradualtions you have just covered the earth with an air burst of nuclear waste. Fun for all!

When was the last time anything blew up going into Orbit. Challenger?
That was back in the 80's. We've perfected the process.

Space is a big place. Plenty of space for our waste.

When was the last time anything blew up going into Orbit. Challenger?

Just like we're perfected the airplane? Yet those still crash. How bout the car? And space launches dont happen nearly as often as planes. And they still go wrong. I site:

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches...osterwoes.html

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/1999/yearinrev/99com.html

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/2001/launch01.html

http://www76.pair.com/tjohnson/slr0901.html

There are many more nasa sites from 2000, 98, and I'm sure many other years, but they're down right now.

Do you want to risk it? It seems to me more likely that something would go wrong with constant space launches with hazardous materials than a terrorist getting a bomb on a plane these days but we're still all worried.

Launches that often would start to become routine, much like truck drivers today. Trucks are "perfected" yet they still get in wrecks don't they? Human error is always there.

Space is a big place. Plenty of space for our waste.

We once said the same thing about earth. There's still plenty of space, the trash just messes things up.

And once again I come back to expense. I'll note http://www.nyc.gov/html/dos/html/dosfact.html which points out that New York alone produces 13,000 tons of trash/day. That's 26,000,000 if i did my math correctly. With the cheapest system (accodring to nasa web site: http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/ask/a11782.html), the Energia launch system, that's just into orbit where it messed up other launches and blocks the sun (in quanity it would start to effect weather I bet) that's 9.36 billion dollars a day.

Not my tax dollars thank you.


Oh and I added Deep Space/Sun for you.

I think we should be concentrating more on stopping pollution rather than 'sweeping under the carpet'.

Sending the trash into space would just encourage corporations NOT to convert to newer clearer technologies.

(as Kermi has covered the cost and risk, not to mention annoying all those aliens)

Also the last space launch accident I saw was last month when the Japanese SCRAM rocket crashed near Woomera (in Aust).

Do you have any idea how expansive it would be!!! No, its the dumbest thing and it would be like 8000 shuttle launches per day!!! god, what a dumb idea!

[edited by mod - keep the language nice please]

It wouldn't be that expensive. Launching multiple, unmanned
rockets into space would be like buying in bulk. The more you
do it, the cheaper it would be per launch.

>I think we should be concentrating more on stopping pollution
>rather than 'sweeping under the carpet'.

>Sending the trash into space would just encourage corporations
>NOT to convert to newer clearer technologies.

I don't consider garbage to be pollution. There'll always be garbage.
There'll always be containers that surround my hamburgers. Something
needs to happen to this stuff.

Besides, nobody said it had to be every scrap of garbage ever
produced. Just get rid of the hazardous, radioactive, green stuff
that is kept in barrels and buried in the desert... Yeah, that
and diapers. Definately the diapers. Those are gross.

everybody has good points (well, almost) and i am not really supporting the space launch... in fact, i am NOT in favour of it. but working against the majority would be a much better challenge.
anyway, here goes:

I cannot argue against the expensive part... and the danger part... but keeping it in barrels on the earth and dumping it into lakes, oceans and public parks is equally harmful ... we cannot keep storing garbage forever. someday, we will definitely run out of space to dump garbage on earth...

A better solution would be not to make that kind of garbage...

now we all know that is impossible... well maybe not impossible, but impractical and improbable... how can everyone in the world be convinced to stop using plastic and polythene and all the various forms of indispensable garbage? unrealistic...
and we cannot stop the production and circulation of it either... it is practically impossible to live without plastic or any such forms of plastic in todays world. it is just so useful...

also the nuclear waste... now this stuff is terrible and we all know that. there is no safe way to dispose of nuclear waste. it will be polluting and harming us in some way whatever we do with it...

and about launching it onto the sun... (dont tell me the expensive story again - i said that i cannot argue against that), look at the size of the sun... how much garbage can it take before somthing happens? i'd say a long long long time...by the way, the stuff would never reach the sun. it would melt and disintegrate and vapourize way before it actually gets to the sun.

And space traffic... i dont think that the garbage would just lie there - we could launch it so that it breaks though the earth's orbit. i dont think it will be any problem for aliens... because we have no proof of intelligent life in space - even if aliens do exist, it will take them a long time to realize that we are launching the trash. basides, all of space does not belong to them!

well, more points later... my computer tech class is almost over...