Latest / The Curious Kidcast | Fun Facts and Curious Questions / Is Space Full of Junk? | Amazing quesions for kids

Transcript

Is Space Full of Junk? | Amazing quesions for kids · The Curious Kidcast | Fun Facts and Curious Questions

• 0:00
  Picture this right now, above your head.
• 0:03
  There's something zooming past at 28,000 kilometres per hour.
• 0:08
  It's not a superhero, it's not Santa's sleigh, and it
• 0:11
  definitely isn't a really fast pizza delivery.
• 0:14
  It's space junk, and there's a lot of it up there.
• 0:19
  Like, a lot. We're talking thousands of dead
• 0:23
  satellites, old rocket parts, lost tools, and even a glove
• 0:27
  that an astronaut dropped during a space walk, all of it racing
• 0:31
  around Earth faster than a speeding bullet.
• 0:33
  Some pieces are as big as a bus, some are smaller than a marble.
• 0:37
  And if just two of them crash into each other, boom, thousands
• 0:41
  of new dangerous pieces go flying in every direction.
• 0:44
  So, yeah, space is kind of a mess.
• 0:47
  Stay tuned to find out just how messy it really is and whether
• 0:50
  we're ever gonna clean it up. Curious kid cast?
• 0:54
  Here we go. Questions poppin.
• 0:58
  Minds will blow Big ideas. They're taking flight.
• 1:04
  Let's explore. Feel the light.
• 1:15
  Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Curious Kid cast.
• 1:18
  I'm your host, Charlie, and this is the show where we answer the
• 1:22
  questions that make you go. Wait, what?
• 1:25
  Today's question comes from Tilly in Yorkshire, England, who
• 1:28
  asked us how much stuff have we put in space and do things ever
• 1:32
  crash up there? And Tilly, you asked this
• 1:34
  question because you were watching a rocket launch on TV
• 1:38
  and pondered where the space was getting messy, so you wanted to
• 1:41
  know if we needed to send a giant vacuum cleaner up there or
• 1:44
  something. Spoiler alert, Tilly, you're not
• 1:46
  far off. Also, a giant space vacuum would
• 1:49
  be the coolest job ever. Before we blast off into today's
• 1:53
  episode, if you're loving the Curious Kit cast, make sure to
• 1:56
  share it with your friends and hit that subscribe button.
• 1:59
  And if you've got a burning question you'd like answered,
• 2:02
  maybe about why cats always land on their feet or why pizza
• 2:06
  tastes better when someone else makes it, or why your parents
• 2:09
  always say we have food at home, head over to curiouskitcast.com
• 2:13
  and send it our way. All right, let's get into it.
• 2:17
  Space. When you look up at night, it
• 2:19
  seems pretty empty, right? Just the moon, some stars, maybe
• 2:23
  a satellite if you're lucky. It all looks peaceful and quiet,
• 2:26
  like the universe's version of a library.
• 2:28
  But here's the thing. Space around Earth is actually
• 2:30
  super busy. Like rush hour traffic busy,
• 2:34
  except instead of cars, it's satellites, rocket parts, and
• 2:37
  yes, even lost gloves. I'm not kidding.
• 2:40
  Astronauts have actually lost gloves in space.
• 2:43
  Imagine explaining that to your teacher.
• 2:45
  Sorry, I can't do my homework. My glove floated away into
• 2:48
  orbit. Actually, that's probably the
• 2:50
  best excuse anyone's ever come up with.
• 2:53
  So let's start at the beginning. The first thing humans ever put
• 2:56
  in space was a shiny metal ball called Sputnik 1, launched way
• 3:00
  back in 1957 by the Soviet Union.
• 3:03
  It was about the size of a beach ball, and all it did was beep.
• 3:07
  That's it. Just beep, beep, beep.
• 3:10
  But that little beep changed everything.
• 3:12
  It was the first human made object to orbit Earth.
• 3:15
  Before Sputnik, space was all natural.
• 3:18
  Planets, moons, asteroids, you know, the usual cosmic stuff.
• 3:23
  After Sputnik, humans officially joined the space club and once
• 3:27
  we started we really couldn't stop ourselves.
• 3:29
  It's like when you eat one chip and suddenly the whole bag is
• 3:32
  gone, except instead of chips it's satellites.
• 3:37
  Now when we talk about stuff in space, we're not talking about
• 3:40
  planets or stars. We mean human made objects,
• 3:44
  things we built and launched up there.
• 3:47
  This includes working satellites, broken satellites,
• 3:49
  space stations, old rocket parts, tools that astronauts
• 3:53
  dropped, tiny paint flecks and broken pieces from crashes.
• 3:58
  Scientists call all of this space objects and the unwanted
• 4:02
  bits are called space debris or space junk, which let's be
• 4:06
  honest, sounds like a really unfortunate band name.
• 4:09
  Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage.
• 4:13
  Space Junk. Yeah, they're definitely not
• 4:16
  selling out any concerts. So how much stuff is actually up
• 4:22
  there right now? Well, hold on to your space
• 4:25
  helmet, because this number is wild.
• 4:27
  Scientists are currently tracking around 9000 active
• 4:31
  satellites. That's 9000 working satellites
• 4:34
  doing important jobs. But that's just the satellites
• 4:37
  that actually work. They're also about 20,000 large
• 4:40
  objects, things bigger than a tennis ball floating around up
• 4:43
  there. These are the ones space
• 4:45
  agencies watch very carefully because if they crash into
• 4:48
  something, it's going to be a bad day for everyone involved.
• 4:52
  It's like having 20,000 tennis balls flying around, except
• 4:55
  they're made of metal and moving faster than a speeding bullet.
• 4:58
  So, you know, slightly more dangerous than gym class.
• 5:03
  But wait, there's more. And by more I mean hundreds of
• 5:06
  thousands of marble sized pieces and millions, yes millions of
• 5:09
  tiny fragments, flakes and chips.
• 5:11
  Some of these are so small you couldn't even see them with your
• 5:14
  eyes. But here's the terrifying part.
• 5:17
  They can still be super dangerous.
• 5:19
  Why? Because space is ridiculously
• 5:22
  fast. Like I just blinked and missed
• 5:25
  my birthday fast. Objects orbiting Earth zoom
• 5:30
  around at about 28,000 kilometres per hour.
• 5:33
  That's over 17,000 mph for my American friends.
• 5:37
  To put that in perspective, that's about 7 kilometres every
• 5:40
  single second. At that speed, a tiny bolt can
• 5:43
  hit like a bullet, a paint chip can crack a spacecraft window,
• 5:47
  and if two bigger things collide, they can create
• 5:50
  thousands of new dangerous pieces.
• 5:52
  It's like the world's worst pinata party, except instead of
• 5:57
  candy you get deadly flying debris.
• 6:00
  I'm going to say it, worst party ever.
• 6:03
  Now you might be wondering, why did we put so much stuff up
• 6:06
  there in the 1st place? Did we just get really excited
• 6:09
  and forget to clean up after ourselves?
• 6:11
  Well, kind of, but also we had good reasons.
• 6:15
  Most of the useful stuff in space is made-up of satellites.
• 6:18
  Satellites help us use GPS and maps, watch TV, use the
• 6:22
  Internet, predict the weather, track storms and climate change,
• 6:26
  and make phone calls across the world.
• 6:28
  Every time you check if it's going to rain tomorrow or watch
• 6:32
  a video online or use directions on your phone, you're using
• 6:35
  space. Mind blown, right?
• 6:38
  You're basically a space user. Put that on your resume.
• 6:42
  Some satellites are up there doing science.
• 6:45
  They study the sun, other planets, black holes, and even
• 6:48
  Earth's oceans and forests. Telescopes like Hubble and James
• 6:52
  Webb float in space so they can see clearly without Earth's
• 6:55
  atmosphere getting in the way. Space telescopes get the crystal
• 7:00
  clearview Earth telescopes are like trying to see the board at
• 7:04
  school when you forgot your glasses and you're sitting in
• 7:07
  the back row next to the kid who won't stop talking.
• 7:10
  Not ideal. We've also built space station
• 7:14
  supply spacecraft and crew vehicles.
• 7:17
  The biggest one is the International Space Station, the
• 7:20
  ISS for short, which is basically a giant science lab
• 7:23
  orbiting Earth every 90 minutes. That means the astronauts up
• 7:28
  there see 16 sunrises every single day.
• 7:33
  Imagine trying to set your alarm clock for that.
• 7:35
  Good morning. Good morning again.
• 7:37
  Good morning again. Good morning, Aggie.
• 7:39
  Yeah, I just give up on sleep entirely.
• 7:41
  Also, imagine trying to celebrate your birthday.
• 7:44
  Happy birthday. Oh, wait, it's tomorrow now.
• 7:47
  Never mind. Oh, wait, it's today again.
• 7:49
  Honestly, sounds exhausting. Here's something most people
• 7:53
  don't realize. When rockets launch, they don't
• 7:56
  come back whole. They drop parts along the way.
• 7:59
  Kind of like Hansel and Gretel dropping bread crumbs, except
• 8:02
  instead of bread crumbs it's massive chunks of metal.
• 8:05
  Some pieces burn up in the atmosphere, some fall into
• 8:09
  oceans, and some just stay in orbit as empty metal shells.
• 8:13
  And over 65 years of space exploration, those leftover
• 8:17
  parts really add up. It's like when your room gets
• 8:19
  messy because you keep saying I'll clean it up later, except
• 8:22
  this is space and there's no parent yelling at you to tidy
• 8:25
  up. Although honestly, space could
• 8:27
  probably use that. OK, here's the part you really
• 8:31
  wanted to know about. Do things ever crash in space?
• 8:34
  The answer is yes, absolutely yes.
• 8:37
  And sometimes, weirdly enough, the crashes are on purpose.
• 8:41
  Let me explain. Actually, scratch that.
• 8:43
  Let me explain after I process how bonkers that sounds.
• 8:48
  As space gets busier, the chance of accidents goes up.
• 8:52
  You've got working satellites colliding with old dead ones,
• 8:55
  rocket fragments smashing into debris, and satellites hitting
• 8:58
  pieces that are too small to even track.
• 9:01
  One of the most famous accidents happened in 2009 when a working
• 9:05
  satellite crashed into a dead satellite.
• 9:08
  The result? Thousands of new pieces of
• 9:10
  debris flying in all directions. It was like crashing two cars
• 9:13
  while driving at bullet speed with no brakes.
• 9:16
  Not great. Also definitely not covered by
• 9:19
  insurance. Yeah.
• 9:19
  Hi, I'd like to file a claim. My satellite just got hit by
• 9:22
  another satellite in orbit. No I don't have the other
• 9:26
  drivers information, but here's where it gets really weird.
• 9:30
  Sometimes humans have intentionally smashed things in
• 9:33
  space on purpose. Why would we do something that
• 9:37
  sounds so obviously like a bad idea?
• 9:39
  Usually for military test experiments or technology
• 9:42
  demonstrations. Some countries have tested anti
• 9:45
  satellite weapons by destroying old satellites.
• 9:48
  The problem is, 1 crash can create huge clouds of debris
• 9:52
  that stay in orbit for decades, putting everyone's satellites at
• 9:56
  risk. It's like breaking a glass
• 9:58
  bottle on a busy highway. Sure, you might have had a
• 10:01
  reason, but now everyone else has to deal with the mess.
• 10:04
  And unlike your room, you can't just shove this mess under the
• 10:07
  bed and hope no one notices. Because of this, many scientists
• 10:11
  are like, hey, maybe let's never do that again.
• 10:14
  Just a thought. Now, there's this thing called
• 10:18
  Kessler Syndrome, and it sounds like something out of a science
• 10:21
  fiction movie, but it's very real.
• 10:24
  Kessler syndrome is the idea that one collision creates
• 10:27
  debris. That debris causes more
• 10:29
  collisions, which creates more debris, which causes even more
• 10:33
  collisions, until space becomes too dangerous to use.
• 10:37
  It's like knocking over the first domino and watching
• 10:40
  millions fall. If this happened in certain
• 10:43
  orbits, satellites could be destroyed faster than we can
• 10:46
  replace them. Space travel could become super
• 10:48
  risky. And Jeep EPS, weather forecast,
• 10:51
  and communications could all fail.
• 10:53
  Basically, you'd never know if it was going to rain.
• 10:55
  You'd get lost going to your friend's house, and your
• 10:58
  Internet would stop working. The good news?
• 11:00
  We're not there yet. The better news?
• 11:03
  Scientists are working really hard to make sure we never get
• 11:06
  there. The best news?
• 11:07
  You can still watch cat videos for now.
• 11:11
  So how do we avoid crashes? Well, space agencies don't just
• 11:16
  launch things and cross their fingers.
• 11:18
  They track objects constantly, predict when things might get
• 11:22
  too close, and move satellites out of the way if needed.
• 11:25
  Astronauts on the ISS sometimes have to hide and escape
• 11:29
  spacecraft, change the station's orbit, or delay space walks, all
• 11:34
  because of space junk zooming by.
• 11:36
  Imagine being told you can't go outside for recess because
• 11:40
  there's a rusty bolt flying past at 28,000 kilometres per hour.
• 11:46
  Sorry kids, no space walk today. There's a rogue screwdriver
• 11:50
  coming through and it's in a really bad mood.
• 11:54
  Here's something that surprises a lot of people.
• 11:56
  Space junk doesn't just stay up there forever.
• 11:58
  Many objects slowly lose altitude, get pulled down by
• 12:01
  Earth's gravity, and burn up in the atmosphere.
• 12:04
  Most of it turns into shooting stars that never reach the
• 12:07
  ground. So next time you see a shooting
• 12:09
  star and make a wish, there's a decent chance you're actually
• 12:13
  wishing on a piece of old Russian rocket.
• 12:16
  Romantic, right? Very very rarely, small pieces
• 12:19
  survive and land somewhere, usually in oceans or empty
• 12:23
  places. The chance of you being hit by
• 12:25
  space debris is incredibly tiny, much smaller than being struck
• 12:29
  by lightning. So don't worry, you're safe.
• 12:31
  You're way more likely to trip over your own shoelaces, which,
• 12:35
  let's be honest, happens to me at least twice a week.
• 12:38
  But can we actually clean up space?
• 12:40
  Scientists and engineers are working on it.
• 12:43
  Some ideas include giant Nets. Space harpoons.
• 12:46
  Yes, harpoons in space. How cool is that?
• 12:51
  Magnetic collectors and special satellites that grab old junk
• 12:54
  and drag it down to burn up. Cleaning space is really hard
• 12:58
  because everything is moving super fast.
• 13:00
  You can't just stop and pick things up like litter in a park,
• 13:03
  and fuel is limited. But even cleaning up a few
• 13:06
  dangerous objects could make space much safer for everyone.
• 13:09
  Although I'm still voting for the giant space net, mostly
• 13:13
  because I want to see someone try to explain that job to their
• 13:16
  grandparents. Yeah, Grandma, I fish for
• 13:19
  satellites. Now here's the tricky part.
• 13:22
  We're still launching more stuff.
• 13:24
  In fact, we're launching more than ever.
• 13:27
  New companies and countries are sending up mega constellations
• 13:30
  of satellites, hundreds at a time for Internet, phones and
• 13:34
  navigation. That's why space rules and
• 13:37
  responsibility matter more than ever.
• 13:39
  The good news is many modern satellites are now designed to
• 13:42
  deorbit safely, avoid creating junk, and move out of the way if
• 13:46
  needed. We're learning from our past
• 13:48
  mistakes slowly, very slowly. Like my dog learning not to eat
• 13:55
  my homework slowly. But hey, progress is progress.
• 14:00
  So is space messy? In a way, yes.
• 14:03
  Space around Earth is crowded, fast, and carefully watched.
• 14:06
  But it's also incredibly useful, full of discovery, and still
• 14:10
  mostly under control. Humans have put a lot of stuff
• 14:13
  in space, way more than most people imagine.
• 14:17
  And while things do crash sometimes, scientists are
• 14:19
  working hard to keep space safe for the future.
• 14:22
  Plus, unlike your bedroom, at least space junk is doing cool
• 14:27
  flips while it floats around. All right, before we wrap up,
• 14:31
  it's time for the Curious Kid cast quiz.
• 14:34
  I'm going to ask you 3 questions about today's episode, and
• 14:37
  you'll have 5 seconds to shout out your answer.
• 14:39
  No cheating by rewinding. And yes, I know you're thinking
• 14:42
  about it. Don't do it.
• 14:44
  Ready. Let's go.
• 14:47
  Question one. What was the name of the first
• 14:49
  human made object to orbit Earth?
• 14:51
  Was it a beeper 1B Sputnik one or C spaceball Supreme?
• 15:03
  The answer is B Sputnik one. If you said spaceball supreme, I
• 15:08
  appreciate your creativity, but that's not it.
• 15:10
  Although honestly, that would have been way cooler.
• 15:13
  The Soviets really missed an opportunity there.
• 15:16
  Question 2. How fast do objects in orbit
• 15:19
  travel around Earth? Is it a 280 kilometres per hour,
• 15:24
  B 2800 kilometres per hour, or C 28,000 kilometres per hour?
• 15:36
  The answer is C 28,000 kilometres per hour.
• 15:40
  That's seriously fast. Faster than the fastest car,
• 15:44
  fastest plane, and definitely faster than your parents driving
• 15:47
  you to school when you're already 10 minutes late.
• 15:50
  Question three, what is Kessler syndrome?
• 15:54
  Is it a a space disease? Astronauts get BA chain reaction
• 15:58
  of collisions creating more and more debris or CA dance move
• 16:02
  popular in zero gravity. The answer is BA chain reaction
• 16:13
  of collisions creating more and more debris.
• 16:16
  If you said CA-0 gravity dance move, please send me a video of
• 16:20
  what that would look like. Actually please don't.
• 16:23
  I take that back. I don't need that kind of chaos
• 16:25
  in my life. And that's it for today's
• 16:29
  episode of The Curious Kid cast. Big thanks to Tilly for that
• 16:32
  fantastic question. Space is messy, it's busy, and
• 16:37
  it's absolutely fascinating. The next time you use GPS, check
• 16:40
  the weather or watch a video online, remember that high above
• 16:44
  your head, thousands of objects are racing around Earth at
• 16:47
  incredible speeds, silently helping you, carefully avoiding
• 16:51
  each other and reminding us that even in space, tidying up
• 16:55
  matters. Although at this point, it might
• 16:58
  be easier to just move to Mars and start fresh.
• 17:02
  If you love this episode, make sure to share it with your
• 17:04
  friends and subscribe so you never miss an episode.
• 17:07
  And if you've got a curious question bouncing around in your
• 17:10
  brain, head over to curiouskitcast.com and send it
• 17:14
  our way. Who knows, your question might
• 17:17
  be featured in the next episode. Just please don't ask me to
• 17:20
  clean my room. I get enough of that at home.
• 17:24
  I'm Charlie and this has been the Curious Kid cast.
• 17:27
  Stay curious, stay awesome, and remember, space might be messy,
• 17:31
  but at least it's not as messy as your backpack.
• 17:34
  Seriously, when was the last time you cleaned that thing out?
• 17:36
  I'll catch you next time.