How should we deal with space junk? Space recycling, of course!

Channel 3000 News/CNN ^ | December 8, 2025 | CNN Bitter LOSERS

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"And that junk makes an impact. Debris left bullet-like cracks in the windshield of the space shuttle Challenger during Sally Ride’s first flight in 1983. The Hubble Space Telescope was hit by space junk on multiple occasions, including a collision that punctured through its antenna dish. Meanwhile, two large crashes between satellites in 2007 and 2009 created enough new debris to now account for more than one third of all catalogued space junk, NASA reported."

[Reily]

Wasn’t there a bad SciFi* TV comedy (1970s) on this?

* Some might say it was so bad it was good!

[Track9]

We need the bomb magnet lady.

[dfwgator]

[wally_bert]

Ed Straker of SHADO ran into the problem of space debris in one episode of UFO.

[DFG]

[kosciusko51]

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“You Big Dummy!” :)

[wally_bert]

Salvage One had the idea of bringing junk from the moon to bring back and sell.

[kosciusko51]

Beat me by two seconds!!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

MacGyver could solve this problem with a shoelace and a paper clip!

[Magnum44]

[econjack]

Someone needs to do a cost/benefit analysis on this type of proposal.

[whitney69]

We need to send up lasers to slow them so they will disintegrate returning to the earth. There’s a lot of junk up there serving no purpose other than being a problem.

wy69

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

IF someone is going to plan for long trips in outer space they need to develop ways to do onboard metal smelting. The next space station should have some way to recycle and manufacture metal. Yes, expensive, but start small. Recycle the space station in situ rather than crashing it into the pacific.

[mikey_hates_everything]

[Diana in Wisconsin]

End of the article makes it sound as if it’s not gonna happen, anyway:

“Recycling space junk could be nearly impossible if you need permission from every country that owns the objects before you clean them up. But, another part of the treaty requires countries to avoid contaminating space — which could be interpreted to mean you have to clean up your space junk, Dodge said.

And that could be a very important part of making space recycling happen.

‘People are interested in these sustainability ideas. They want to try it,’ Xuan said. “But it’s all about the money and whether there’s an incentive.’”

Diana here:

Incentive: Opening, ‘Bob’s Museum of Space Junk’ somewhere in the desert, LOL!

[dfwgator]

“Commence Operation....Vacu-Suck!”

[Reily]

That’s the one i was thinking of!

[gundog]

How much ferrous material is in space junk?