Astronauts Throw Trash Into Space

MattSparkes writes "The International Space Station is home to an increasing amount of unwanted goods, and NASA has just approved a policy where these could be thrown out of the door into space. 'Tools and other gear have accidentally floated away during spacewalks. But NASA has shied away from intentionally jettisoning gear off the ISS in the past because of the threat of space junk hitting the station or other spacecraft.' The loosening of the rules on this comes just as Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin is about to take a space walk where he will hit a golf ball from the ISS in a promotional stunt for a golf company."

Comments

Pigs in space

[BadAnalogyGuy]

It starts with a piece of trash and quickly turns into a terrible neighborhood. Next thing you know, it'll be the International Space Crackhouse.

I told you we shouldn't have let those Russians in.

Why doesn't ISS have an extensible trash module?

[Morgaine]

Quite apart from the obvious dangers involved in dumping trash into orbit ...

ISS trash isn't actually trash --- it's extremely valuable material (and mass) that has been boosted into LEO at very high cost.

They should attach an extensible trash module to the ISS, and place all their "trash" (which simply means stuff that they cannot currently use) into the containers through appropriate hatches.

(And I bet space contractors would love to bid for such a project too.)

Not only would you reduce the risk to future flights this way, but you would also provide useful materials for the future. *AND* you'd be seen to be environmentally sensitive, which is no bad thing.