There was a news item this week about 2 satellites colliding in space. Apparently, NASA is keeping track of about 13,000 different objects up there; but there are many tens of thousands more dangerous bits that are too small to follow. Of course, this collision has created a whole new cloud of space junk, consisting of who knows how many tens of thousands of little bits. The frightening thing is that lots of decommissioned satellites, with residual fuel, will eventually corrode and self-destruct. The prospects of this are daunting, to say the least. We are very good at lobbing stuff up into orbit; but apparently, nobody thought much about -- or took responsibility for -- getting it all back down. Typical human behaviour, is all I can say! /Brian


Low Earth Orbit
Feb 15 2009


Thousands of pieces of junk
are circling planet earth.

Dark satellites
like ghost ships,
drifting in endless orbits.
Discarded boosters
tumbling through space.
And high-tech wrenches
fumbled away
by astronauts.
We have littered the planet
so there’s no place left to walk;
and now, like a dirty haze
our garbage surrounds the earth.

Even flecks of paint
moving faster than bullets,
colliding with the power of hand-grenades.
So tiny specs, at lethal speed
have formed an impenetrable shield,
pinning us down
here, on the surface,
where escape
will soon become impossible.

Billions, giving birth,
in the hot polluted soup
of planet earth,
now conveniently quarantined
from the universe.
Where we squint through telescopes,
peering out
longingly;
astonished to see
such untouched beauty.