Does space debris... effect us?

Question

Yeah, I was just wondering...
I heard somewhere some company is working on 'Space travel tourism'.

Now that's fine, however I'm just wondering if it 'takes off', so to speak and starts gaining more and more customers...
Would that have an effect over time on the Earth's mass?; with the debris falling off the ships/planes? and could this in turn effect the Earth's rotation speed? Abit 'like' global warming?

(In the future, maybe fast food space station's etc... i.e. thousands of tons of material in space... Who is going to clean it up? heh.)

I mean, if Earth lost mass, would that have an effect on its rotation?
(I personally have no idea.)

Answer 1

This is simply just another reason why we should not throw litter all over the place.

Imagine traveling through space at 25,000 Miles Per Hour and slamming into a Big Mac cardboard box, or a Pepsi Can.
It would be a total disaster.

Answer 2

Yes, this is also called entropy. Everywhere where there has been a commet hit the earth, this is space debris. You may not know about the green glass in the dessert, this was caused by a commet landing there with such emmense heat that it made green glass. This wouldn't have any effect on the earths rotational speed. Commeercial space travel would have an effect on Global warmng though. But still, the earths mass would remain constant.

Answer 3

You Ask.....".I mean, if Earth lost mass, would that have an effect on its rotation?" It could do with losing a lot then, think of all the scars from past meetings with space debris.

Answer 4

The amount of debris in space has no effect on Earth's mass or gravity, none to speak of anyway. The main anger from this debris is that space craft may be impacted by this debris with disaterous results.

Answer 5

I read that way back in the good old days Russian cosmonauts used to dump there fecal waste into space, can you just imagine hearing a astronaut telling mission control that they lost a wing on the shuttle because of a frozen turd travelling at 17,000 mile per hours hits the space shuttle and rips the wing to shreds.

Answer 6

I once heard that if a flake of paint came off anything up there it would orbit forever,at a phenominal speed. Problem ,if you go out in a suit in space this flake of paint goes straight through you and you dead..huh Lots of debris up there.

Answer 7

I assume that the more juck we put up there the more that's likely to come back down again. Sounds like a great idea in theory though

Answer 8

It's more of a danger to the ISS and the shuttle than it is to us on the ground since most stuff burns up on reentry, but occaisonally this sort of thing can and does happen...

Check it out=>http://www.space.com/news/raining_boosters_000510.html

Answer 9

If space travel ever gets going, it will start raining plastic water bottles as the tourists throw them through the bus windows..................

Answer 10

Yep....