Space Station Turning Into a Trash Heap

quintin3265 writes "Apparently, the International Space Station is becoming overloaded with junk, stored among other places in a now unused airlock. Since shuttles aren't visiting the station, the station's occupants can't return broken machines to Earth. Furthermore, the only way they can dispose of trash and human waste is by loading these items in Russian cargo ships that burn up in the atmosphere."

Comments

snow

[mothz]

the only way they can dispose of trash and human waste is by loading these items in Russian cargo ships that burn up in the atmosphere.

So even if the snow doesn't look yellow, it's probably not good to eat.

And to think...

[datastalker]

...that I was upset with broken machines piling up in the cage in the datacenter... at least I don't live there! (Well, ok, not entirely.) Plus, I can go outside to escape looking at it, which is unfortunately not an option for the cosmo/astro-nauts.

To the sun!

[Anonymous Coward]

Send them in the direction of THE SUN!

Homer: The sun? That's the hottest place on Earth!

Obligatory One Liners

[Anonymous Coward]

Space stations are responsible for all the crap in the atmosphere?

An unused airlock is where redneck america of the future will store all their unused junk, making the storage business obsolete.

Imperial Space Stations always dump their trash before jumping to hyperspace. That's just standard procedure, duh!

Major Tom to Ground Control -- mission accomplished...now how do I flush?

Sell it on Ebay

[Anonymous Coward]

Ships to: Worldwide
Shipping: Check item description and payment instructions or contact seller for details

Take a lesson from DMB

[hansoncoyne]

Don't just dump your sh*t when nobody is looking. You may get caught.

Re:Take a lesson from DMB

[mrgreen4242]

Off topic, but " the driver allegedly emptied the contents of the bus' septic tank into the river below, the lawsuit alleged." They allegedly need to get some new alleged staff writers, I alledge.

One word...

[Shadow Wrought]

eBay. Buyer pays for shipping.

The Klingon Spin

[Alien Being]

We didn't say that the ISS is a garbage skow. We said it should be hauled away *as* garbage.

Empty Oxygen tanks, $.10

[moofdaddy]

What abut a garage sale?

Flaming Poo

[killermookie]

Furthermore, the only way they can dispose of trash and human waste is by loading these items in Russian cargo ships that burn up in the atmosphere.

Let the flaming poo jokes commence.

The Trash Heap?

[fiannaFailMan]

Isn't the Trash Heap supposed to be all-seeing, all-wise, and all-knowing?

Re:what??

[RealAlaskan]

Have to launch it and send it in the opposite direction of orbit for it to fall; but damn, in microgravity it shouldn't be that hard to come up with a spring loaded trash disposal system.....

For evey action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. If you change the orbit of the excrement, you also slightly change the orbit of the space station. Since there's a bit of atmospheric drag in that low orbit, that might be a good thing. De-orbiting the trash will tend to counter the drag which is slowing the space station.

So, we change orbits by flinging poo. We'll call it the monkey drive.

aye caramba!

[aztektum]

I just washed my car! Now that the birds are going south I thought it was safe.

No problem

[Tablizer]

Getting rid of space trash is easy. Just mix it with anti-trash.

Imagine the feeling

[HBI]

Being aboard a mighty achievement of human science, and having your own shit piling up next to you for lack of a means to dispose it.

It would be very demoralizing to me.

Hey!

[Crispin Cowan]

No sooner do they win the X-Prize than there's a new use for their Spaceship One :)

Crispin

Re:what??

[Dirtside]

Oops is a word you don't want to hear in space.

In space, no one can hear you say "Oops."