We are well aware just how much crap there is in space. Lots of people have suggested ways of dealing with it, but first we have to find it. The Air Force has been tracking space junk for decades with technology that's decades old, but its system is in store for a major upgrade, called Space Fence.

Forget solar flares, forget space garbage trucks, and forget lasers. The new and awesome and fun way to deal with the space junk is to just blow up the atmosphere!

Space junk is getting to be more and more of a problem, but while there have been plenty of serious talks on the subject, the first country to actually go and do something about it may be the Swiss. By 2016, Switzerland plans to launch a "janitor satellite" to start fighting the the space junk problem directly while the rest of us keep twiddling our thumbs.

The New York Times has an interesting read about Beth O'Leary, an anthropology professor at New Mexico State University, who along with her students has fought to have humanity's (specifically America's) presence on the moon protected. A "please don't disturb the footprints" sign isn't going to cut it.