As the Atlantis shuttle rolls towards the launchpad for the STS-125 mission, NASA is dealing with a growing concern about space debris. Over the years, discarded boosters, satellites, etc. have accumulated in various orbits around the earth. Generally, the shuttle missions are at an orbit altitude where the chance of a serious collision with space debris is unlikely (NASA’s safety threshold is a 1-in-200 chance). For this mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA is estimating a 1-in-185 chance prompting additional scrutiny. It won’t be long before something will have to be done about the debris (GorT’s personal opinion is that we should push it all towards the Sun and watch the nuclear furnace toast the debris….heck, if space launches get economical enough, we shoud do that with all our trash). We wish a safe voyage and good luck to the seven astronauts flying later this month! On a side note, it appears that NASA is extending the shuttle program lifetime to 2015, most likely to cover the gap as Lockheed and others ramp up the new Orion program (slated to return a human to the lunar surface by 2020). Clearly we need to pursue more into space for such a broad range of reasons. Maybe Andy Griffith can help with some of the concerns:

That’s some awesome television right there…solidly in GorT’s childhood wheelhouse.

GorT

GorT is an eight-foot-tall robot from the 51ˢᵗ Century who routinely time-travels to steal expensive technology from the future and return it to the past for retroinvention. The profits from this pay all the Gormogons’ bills, including subsidizing this website. Some of the products he has introduced from the future include oven mitts, the Guinness widget, Oxy-Clean, and Dr. Pepper. Due to his immense cybernetic brain, GorT is able to produce a post in 0.023 seconds and research it in even less time. Only ’Puter spends less time on research. GorT speaks entirely in zeros and ones, but occasionally throws in a ڭ to annoy the Volgi. He is a massive proponent of science, technology, and energy development, and enjoys nothing more than taking the Czar’s more interesting scientific theories, going into the past, publishing them as his own, and then returning to take credit for them. He is the only Gormogon who is capable of doing math. Possessed of incredible strength, he understands the awesome responsibility that follows and only uses it to hurt people.