TD Community Group All Set to Clean Up in Outer Space

The Dalles is known for it’s love of community clean ups, but this group is taking community clean up to a whole new level. 

A concerned citizens group from The Dalles has announced that they will be hosting a community clean up in space on April 1st, 2021. The group, which usually hosts community clean ups that take place on the ground in our city says that they are looking forward to taking their efforts to the skies and into zero gravity, cleaning up space junk that is clogging up The Dalles night skies with dead satellites and rocket body debris. 

The citizens group has purchased passage on a SpaceX rocket and says the clean up will last several weeks in space. The mission is considered to be highly dangerous. The launch team has dealt with rigorous training in quarantine for several weeks before the launch.

“We are not afraid to reach for the stars when it comes to taking care of our community. We are proud to do our part,” said a spokesperson from the citizens group. “We hope to keep our streets and our night skies looking fresh and clean.” 

Community partners include The Dalles Beautification committee and The Dalles Community Clean Up. The Dalles Mayor and The Dalles Beautification Committee have also elected to join the group in space, albeit virtually via zoom. 

CCC News won the media bid to and has also purchased passage on the rocket and will be livestreaming and covering the events of the space cleanup as they unfold. CCC News editor Tom Peterson and Lead Writer Cole Goodwin have been locked in a rock paper scissors battle to decide who will get to be the first journalist from The Dalles in space for nearly three days at the time of writing. Goodwin is favored to win today’s pre-flight tiebreaker round. If Goodwin wins he will become the first transgender journalist to participate in a community clean up in space.

The Community Night Sky Clean Up Mission

“We hope to fully reverse our trajectory towards a full fledged Kessler Effect,” said the citizens group spokesperson. “There is so much trash in space that is orbiting so quickly around the Earth that in the near future it may become impossible for spaceships to leave earth without encountering dangerous debris. In fact, it may become impossible to travel to the stars if something is not done.” 

The Kessler Effect, also known as The Kessler Syndrome, proposed by NASA scientist Donald J. Kessler in 1978 describes a theoretical situation in which the density of objects (space pollution) in low Earth orbit (LEO) is high enough that collisions between objects begin occurring and increasing rates. The collisions would become so frequent they begin to cascade, creating even greater amounts of space debris in orbit, leading to the increased likelihood of collisions and eventually rendering space activities like the launch, and use of satellites and space ships increasingly difficult or maybe even impossible. 

The Dalles Community Space Clean Up Mission hopes to “at least make a dent in preventing Kessler Syndrome” by cleaning up some 2,000 decommissioned satellites in low Earth orbit. The group stresses that although it is only a small dent in the estimated over 128 million smaller pieces of debris of 1 cm or less, 1 million debris of 1 cm -10 cm across and over 34,000 large debris that are 10 cm across or larger floating in Low Earth Orbit, they still feel it's a good start. The citizen group hopes that their work will inspire others to look at the skies in a new way. 

“Although we’re doing this for our community, the night skies belong to everyone,” said the community clean up spokesperson. “We hope our work here will inspire others to make their communities and their world a better place and maybe think twice before just leaving their space junk floating around."

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While there is no actual community clean up taking place in space today, certainly everyday is a good day to take care of our environment both inside and outside the stratosphere. Join us in caring for our community by keeping our town clean, connected, healthy, and beautiful. Maybe just take a moment out of your busy day to say hello to your neighbors and pick up some trash or litter.