Space junk in Earth orbit and on the Moon will increase with future missions − but nobody's in charge of cleaning it up

An artist's rendering of debris floating through Earth's orbit. Petrovich9/iStock via Getty Images

There’s a lot of trash on the Moon right now – including nearly 100 bags of human waste – and with countries around the globe traveling to the Moon, there’s going to be a lot more, both on the lunar surface and in Earth’s orbit.

In August 2023, Russia’s Luna-25 probe crashed into the Moon’s surface, while India’s Chandrayann-3 mission successfully landed in the southern polar region, making India the fourth country to land on the Moon.