Our future is in ruins: the archaeology of space, satellites and orbital junk – James Purtill: “Next year will mark six decades of space travel. Orbiting above us are more than one hundred million pieces of debris from this age of exploration – everything from specks of paint and flecks of plastic, to the tool bag dropped by a US astronaut in 2008, to the bus-sized European observation satellite that unexpectedly fell silent four years ago.”