It’s a lesson that most of us learn as kids: you can pull out your toys to play but when you’re done, you’ve got to put them away. Of course, in the midst of fun, this simple rule isn’t always so easy to remember. Until you step on a Lego.
When it comes to space adventures, we’re now getting a painful reminder that there’s a mess on the living room floor. For years the satellites—and essentially anything launched beyond the clouds—have been sent up without much thought to what happens once they lose their usefulness. The result? More than 18,000 pieces of human-made objects bigger than Lego blocks now circle our planet. Only around 1500 are functional satellites; the rest is just junk.
So what do we do with the stuff left floating in space?
About Aalto University
AALTO University is a multidisciplinary university in the fields of Science and Technology, Economics, Architecture, and Art and Design. It has 409 faculty members and a student body of 20,000, 70% of which are students in Science and Technology. AALTO University was founded in 2010 by merging three Finnish universities: The Helsinki School of Economics, The University of Art and Design Helsinki, and Helsinki University of Technology. The three schools are all leading institutions in their respective fields and in their own right. Aalto University is a multidisciplinary community where Science and Art meet Technology and Business. The university is committed to identifying and solving grand societal challenges and building an innovative future.
