Space junk.

Did anyone see the latest graphic/picture from the ESA of all the foreign objects surrounding our planet?

Over 8000 in total.......................700 of which are satellites.

The image i saw on Sky news yesterday........................was SHOCKING.

You could barely see the planet earth from afar for all the junk surrounding the planet.

I'll just go to Sky.com to see if i can find the image. to post.

img135.imageshack.us/img135/7114/hspacejunkesa02zf1.gif

Thats a lot of junk PJ... There you go, an oppertunity for the future.....space junk removal. "Contact PJ at Zero G" "for all your salvage needs" "don't let it get in the way phone PJ"

Seriously....what do you bet that in about 20 years or so we will have a company dedicated to retrieval of space junk, a lucerative business no doubt.
I wonder what part the existance of space junk makes to designers of new hardware and the risks to new hardware put into orbit?