Space Junk

The

Spacecraft

SEC

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Our

Research

Shayna, Elliot, and Carter first started this project by researching and learning about space junk, what it is, and what causes it. They watched videos and read papers about how people have tried to disinagrate space junk but none of them worked. Here are some of the main points we learned: Space junk is created from satellites that are not working anymore. Another is NASA estimates that there are about 23,000 pieces of debris orbiting the Earth. There are also half a million pieces that are 1 centimetre or larger, about 100 million that are 1 millimetre or larger and countless smaller particles. Did you know even tiny flecks of paint could damage a satellite or spacecraft? The Kessler syndrome is a situation where there would be so much space junk orbiting the earth that we couldn't send a spacecraft out to earth without crashing into broken satellite

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How did we

the spacecraft?

Create

Elliot, Shayna, and Carter used a lot of tools to build this spacecraft. Using research we figured out what solution we could build to try and stop the space junk problem. First we needed to make it lightweight because if it is too heavy then the spacecraft could turn back down to Earth, possibly putting our lives at risk, or causing a further problem with space junk. Next we needed to make it not that expensive because then if one wrong thing happened then we have wasted a lot of money and our plan would fail. So with all of those things in mind then we would have to make our plans so they could fit our needs. To build this spaceship we cut squares of cardboard and made them into a box. Then we created a claw to fit in the box so when it sensed space junk with its radar the claw would come out of the box and grab the space junk. Then after it went back into the box with the space junk on it, the lasers in the box would zap the space junk until it could shrink into a very small size so more could come in.

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Watch our

Scratch!

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/931322998/

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Photos and

Videos

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