How Space Debris Is Affecting The World's Oceans

There are no plans, short-term or long-term, to stop using the Pacific Ocean as a dumping ground for unwanted spacecraft. As the Washington Postexplains, in 2031, it's due to become the final resting place of the decommissioned International Space Station (ISS), currently the largest human-made object orbiting the Earth. Hopefully, though, astronauts will take care

There are no plans, short-term or long-term, to stop using the Pacific Ocean as a dumping ground for unwanted spacecraft. As the Washington Post explains, in 2031, it's due to become the final resting place of the decommissioned International Space Station (ISS), currently the largest human-made object orbiting the Earth. Hopefully, though, astronauts will take care of what they leave on board to fall back to Earth. Plastics, as ESA explains, are an essential part of space travel, finding a variety of uses in orbit. Specialist materials, often designed and created for specific purposes, are used in both spacecraft and in space suits for astronauts to wear. As Plastics Today mentions, the ISS is even equipped with The Refabricator, a device to recycle plastics aboard the ISS and 3D print them into new items as required. Unfortunately, in the ocean, these materials will likely behave just like any other plastics, and break down into microplastics. Per Britannica, this plastic pollution is not biodegradable, and already has a pervasive impact on Earth's environment.

A controlled deorbit to land spacecraft in the ocean may come with an environmental impact, but it's still better than a chaotic, uncontrolled descent. In 2018, according to Live Science, China's Tiangong-1 space station reentered the atmosphere, but it was not controlled, with onlookers only having a rough idea where it might land. By sheer luck, it splashed down in the waters near Samoa, only a few thousand miles from Point Nemo.

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