What if from now on, we start shooting all waste produced worldwide into space?

Authors

  • Leon Rozing Delft University of Technology

Keywords:

Physics, Solar system, Gravity/orbits, Escape velocity, Waste materials

Abstract

This article explores the difficulties and the consequences of shooting all waste produced on Earth into space. It is found that if we do not want the waste to orbit Earth, the energy required to shoot one years’ worth of garbage into space would be one third of the total yearly energy consumption of humanity. If it is brought into orbit instead, in 50 years it will be massive enough to have a gravitational field strong enough to let people walk around on it as long as they do not go faster than 8 kmh-1.

References

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ONS (2017) Families and Households: 2017. Office for National Statistics. Available at; https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/families/bulletins/familiesandhouseholds/2017 [Accessed 7th April 2019].

International Energy Agency (2017) Key World Energy Statistics. International Energy Agency. (p. 36) Available at: https://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/KeyWorld2017.pdf [Accessed 7th April 2019].

Statsita (2009) Density of selected plastic materials that float or sink in relation to seawater density (in grams per cubic centimeter). Statista, The Statistics Portal. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/595434/plastic-materials-density/ [Accessed 7th April 2019].

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Published

11.04.2019

How to Cite

Rozing, L. (2019). What if from now on, we start shooting all waste produced worldwide into space?. Journal of Interdisciplinary Science Topics, 8. Retrieved from https://journals.le.ac.uk/index.php/jist/article/view/3102

Issue

Vol. 8 (2019)

Section

Articles

License

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.  All content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC-BY 4.0).