A spacecraft graveyard exists in the middle of the ocean — here's what's down there

Got space junk? Just crash into the corner of the ocean where no one is around.


1,450 miles from any other land is where all the used up satellites, spent rocket bodies and space stations are dumped. Nasa calls it a spacecraft cemetery.

The most remote location on Earth has many names: It's called Point Nemo (Latin for "no one") and the Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility. Most precisely, its exact coordinates are 48 degrees 52.6 minutes south latitude and 123 degrees 23.6 minutes west longitude.

The spot is about 1,450 nautical miles from any spot of land — and the perfect place to dump dead or dying spacecraft, which is why its home to what NASA calls the world's "spacecraft cemetery."

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Form 1971 and 2016 global space agencies sh-canned at the least 260 space craft into the spacecraft graveyard. There is over 2 miles of water over the used space craft. Oh there is a Space X rocket, Russian resupply vehicles and the MIR space station.

Between 1971 and mid-2016, space agencies all over the world dumped at least 260 spacecraft into the region, according to Popular Science. That tally has risen significantly since the year 2015, when the total was just 161, per Gizmodo.

Buried under more than two miles of water is the Soviet-era MIR space station, more than 140 Russian resupply vehicles, several of the European Space Agency's cargo ships (like the Jules Verne ATV), and even a SpaceX rocket, according to Smithsonian.com.

Space junk is a huge problem, just leaving satellites and the like up there is a bad idea. So now spacecraft are built with a de-orbitting systems to bring them down in the space cemetery.

Getting old spacecraft out of orbit is a key to preventing the formation of space junk, and many space agencies and corporations now build spacecraft with systems to de-orbit them (and land them in the spacecraft cemetery).

I guess dilution is the solution? Wonder what fun and excited pollution this creates? Oh well, this will fit in with all the plastic waste.



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So have you seen any of the said space junk before?

a reply to: seasonal

At least that cemetery isn't leaking toxins to the ocean, unlike all the radioactive waste dumped during and after WWII and about a hundred thousand ships sunk during WWII, their fuel oil still in tanks now rotting due to age.

Mother Jones

The cemetery of space craft was intentionally created, mostly benign. The ships sunk during war were unintended, full of cargo, fuel and long term consequences.

a reply to: Illiberation

Yes, before it was junk.

But no I have not been 2 miles under the ocean 1,450 miles from any land.

a reply to: intrptr

I don't think the space "junk" is with out pollutants. But you are 1000% correct about WW II ships. It is the gift that will keep on giving.

a reply to: seasonal

How come?

"Welcome to the world of the Plastic Beach."

-Alee

Soooo... a good place to dump mh370 ?

Sounds like a lead-up to a really cool horror movie!

a reply to: seasonal

The trouble with dumping spacecraft into the ocean, in my view, is that it is a huge waste of materials, and of course you also have the problem of contamination from those spacecraft. Rocket parts can carry residues of fuels, and if they are aiming satellites at that patch of water, some of the older ones tended to have nuclear material on board as a power source, which would mean that one cannot readily dump them in the ocean, without causing greater problems to the oceans.

Curious as to why they don't just push them out into space? If there is nothing to salvage from it, no need it being that possibility of polluting our waters.

Couldn't they be covered with space pollutants? Do we really know that nothing (besides radiation) exists in space that could harm life on earth, especially in our waters? And all in one place to live together and fuse into what? That's mighty interesting info-and a bit scary.

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: intrptr

I don't think the space "junk" is with out pollutants. But you are 1000% correct about WW II ships. It is the gift that will keep on giving.

Shhh, talk about something else. How about a nice discussion about GW, or Humanitarian Aid?

originally posted by: Tekaran
Curious as to why they don't just push them out into space? If there is nothing to salvage from it, no need it being that possibility of polluting our waters.

Because of the cost associated with putting propellant in orbit. Last time I checked it cost ten thousand dollars a pound to orbit.

Trying to match orbits and close approach 'space junk' (without crashing into it) is only superseded by the practical problems associated with latching onto an de-orbiting it safely.

De orbiting requires propellant, too. Latching on can create even more space junk. Even the tiniest fragments of which pose a hazard to other assets.

Meanwhile they are putting more junk up there than ever. Its like who cares, pollute the biosphere and space , its a matter of greed and power, which like space agencies, knows no bounds.

originally posted by: Tekaran
Curious as to why they don't just push them out into space? If there is nothing to salvage from it, no need it being that possibility of polluting our waters.

I would venture most are in lower orbits where they lack the fuel capacity to escape orbit of the Earth, let alone crash into another functioning satellite. Most of these re-entry's , a lot burns up in the atomosphere before hitting the ocean.

a reply to: Tekaran

Curious as to why they don't just push them out into space? If there is nothing to salvage from it, no need it being that possibility of polluting our waters.

Gravity makes it easier (cheaper) to fall rather than somehow make a system to push the item out into space. But pushing the used material out would make much more sense.

Space junk in low earth orbit doesn't stay there forever. Due to a miniscule amount of atmosphere present up there, the satellites experience a drag that slows them down and eventually causes a reentry. It might tke several years, though.

originally posted by: seasonal
Got space junk? Just crash into the corner of the ocean where no one is around.

I have no idea why, but almost every one of your threads has a broken image in it. Usually before any text, or just after the first line.

Are you pasting it wrong, or what?

I see the homer xray, and a dead image. a lot.

a reply to: badw0lf

Wish I knew. I use the odd and painful importing of images and they are indeed there. Then they have a tendency to go all dead on me....

I haven't figured it out.

I still can't believe it's cheaper to make new then reuse the old. I bet you could take all that junk and make a viable craft of some kind...well not now...

Such a wasteful society we have made...

That's just my opinion and it's value is what you place on it.