Elon Musk Plans to 'Chomp up' Space Junk Using SpaceX Starship as Garbage May Clog Earth's Orbit

Elon Musk's plans to transport humans to Mars in the hopes of colonizing the Red Planet include the Starship. They could be used to help tackle a more important issue closer to home. However, the debris from previous space missions is progressively clogging Earth's orbit.

Experts worry the trash will jeopardize future ambitions to explore the ultimate frontier.

Space Junk Issues

European Space Agency said there are around 34,000 objects larger than 10cm in diameter orbiting the Earth, with 900,000 objects measuring between one and 10cm.

Fears of high-velocity collisions with space junk are growing as an increasing number of satellites are deployed into Earth's orbital space lanes.

"The smaller the objects, the more numerous they are," Holger Krag, the head of Space Safety at ESA, said at a press briefing during the 8th European Space Debris Conference. "Only a very small fraction can actually be seen, but all of them are dangerous because of their high velocities. Unfortunately, what you cannot see, you cannot avoid," he added.

Collisions like these might start a space trash cascade, resulting in additional clouds of debris and further collisions.

If things grow severe enough, this scenario, known as the Kessler Syndrome, could make it difficult to function in Earth's orbit.

The founder of SpaceX believes he has a clever answer to this growing challenge.

SpaceX Starship Can 'Fly Around Space and Chomp up Debris,' Musk Says

When asked on Twitter if SpaceX has "thought of any way to try to eventually collect space debris, Elon Musk described a plan to deploy Starship to avoid affecting its business in the future if trash gets out of control in outer space.

"Yes, we can fly Starship around space & chomp up debris with the moving fairing door," he wrote on Twitter.

Independent said the fairing door is a big cover that will go over whatever cargo that Starship is transporting to space, open to let it out when it reaches the necessary orbit, and then close before the spacecraft returns to Earth.

Elon Musk had tweeted about a new section of the Starlink product that shows the journey to Mars, prompting the dialogue.

He did not provide any other details about the proposal to use Starship to catch space trash, including if SpaceX was working on a solution.

Elon Musk's Plans for Outer Space

Mr. Musk has grand hopes for humanity in space, having made no secret of his desire to colonize planets around the solar system with human colonies.

The foundation of his private space firm was based on the idea of making life multi-planetary.

He announced intentions to send a million people to Mars by 2050 in January of last year.

Over the next ten years, the space entrepreneur plans to build 1,000 Starships, or 100 spaceships per year.

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