> More than 21,000 orbital debris larger than 10 cm are known to exist. The estimated population of particles between 1 and 10 cm in diameter is approximately 500,000. The number of particles smaller than 1 cm exceeds 100 million.
Time for a space mining (/scavenging) company. Mine (/scavenge) the broken space ships and bring the costly metals back home. Should be less risky, good returns venture for sure..
Sounds more valuable to keep those costly materials up there, but bunch them together so they can be used as raw materials to build those automated factories?
NASA has an interesting website, with facts about how much stuff is up there, and images of what damage can occur.
(http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/)
> More than 21,000 orbital debris larger than 10 cm are known to exist. The estimated population of particles between 1 and 10 cm in diameter is approximately 500,000. The number of particles smaller than 1 cm exceeds 100 million.