Tools Flying Around in Space?
Where there are people, there is ... rubbish. The same is also true in space. Since the 1950s, we have launched thousands of rockets, sent numerous satellites into orbit and left a lot of junk behind. One day that could become a problem.
Even in space you have to do repairs sometimes. For example, NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O'Hara were repairing some external components of the International Space Station (ISS) in early November 2023. It was a regular job, and we wouldn't really be talking about it today if they had not accidentally dropped their toolbox, which is now floating around aimlessly in space.
Space junk
Astronauts are only human. That means they do sometimes lose things in space. For example, NASA astronaut Ed White lost his glove during a space walk in 1965 and Piers Sellers lost a spatula in 2006.
Scientists have been worried for a long time about the vast amount of rubbish in space. In addition to the 9,000 active satellites floating in space, there are another 2,500 which are now out of service. There are also some 36,000 pieces of space junk larger than ten centimetres in size flying around (not to mention the millions of smaller pieces of junk).
We need to beware of Kessler syndrome: NASA scientist Donald Kessler warned back in 1978 that too much space junk could cause a chain reaction in which objects collide, break into pieces and create new pieces of space junk. That, in turn, will increase the likelihood of more collisions.
Collision warning!
The toolbox that recently ended up in space ended up in a “good” place: its trajectory has been calculated and it was found to be unlikely to collide with the space station again. Still, what about all those other pieces of space junk? Since 1999, the ISS has had to perform more than 30 manoeuvres that involved changing its trajectory to avoid space debris.
To get rid of all that space rubbish, a kind of "space garbage truck" is currently under development. For example, tests have already been conducted with magnets and harpoons that can capture space debris. The European Space Agency (ESA) also recently presented the ClearSpace‑1 mission: a device with four robotic arms will go into space in 2026 to grab space debris and then take it down to the atmosphere to burn up.
Until these major space debris clean-up campaigns can get under way, however, space travellers will have to carry out more and more manoeuvres to avoid collisions.
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