Space Debris Will Soon Impact The Moon
Leftover space debris from a Chinese rocket is on a collision course with the moon. Which opens a larger conversation about the increasingly relevant problem of space junk.
The moon is about to get slammed by a giant piece of space junk. A leftover rocket will hit the far side of the moon Friday, March 4th, although it may take weeks, even months, to confirm the impact through satellite images.
Experts believe it is from a 2014 Chinese launch.
Upon impact, the object will carve out a crater on the moon that could fit several semi tractor-trailers.
John Crassidis, University at Buffalo: "So pretty decent impact, but really nothing to worry about. NASA did a mission before, where they intentionally hit a rocket on the Moon and got the plume off the Moon to study if there was water and they actually did find that out, so they've done this before, this is the first unintentional one."
Which highlights the increasing problem with spacejunk as more nations begin to explore space.
"Think again. 50, 100 years from now, we have Moon bases, right? And you don't want debris coming in to the Moon, right? We only take the problem we have right now Earth to the moon and then Mars 200 years from now, we have to think that far ahead in terms of this stuff."
"We're not at a huge problem right now, but if we don't do anything in the next decade, couple of decades, I think it's going to get a lot worse, certainly in 50 years. If we don't do something, it's going to be a huge problem (referring to the amount of space junk foreseen in the future)."
KMI, An upper Peninsula based company is als