don't let them leave chapter 9

9. The stars, moons, and planets are not our junkyards.

This is a list of materials that NASA, among others, has dumped on the moon. The orbit of Earth is full of even more garbage and toxic waste. 

• More than 70 spacecraft, including rovers, modules, and crashed orbiters

• 5 American flags

• 2 golf balls

• 12 pairs of boots

• TV cameras

• Film magazines

• 96 bags of urine, feces, and vomit

• Numerous cameras and accessories

• Several improvised javelins

• Various hammers, tongs, rakes, and shovels

• Backpacks

• Insulating blankets

• Utility towels

• Used wet wipes

• Personal hygiene kits

• Empty packages of space food

• A photograph of Apollo 16 astronaut Charles Duke's family

• A feather from Baggin, the Air Force Academy's mascot falcon, used to conduct Apollo 15's famous "hammer-feather drop" experiment

• A small aluminum sculpture, a tribute to the US and Soviet "fallen astronauts" who died in the space race, left by the crew of Apollo 15

• A patch from the never-launched Apollo 1 mission, which ended prematurely when flames engulfed the command module during a 1967 training exercise, killing three U.S. astronauts

• A small silicon disk bearing goodwill messages from 73 world leaders, left on the moon by the crew of Apollo 11

• A silver pin, left by Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean

•A medal honoring Soviet cosmonauts Vladimir Komarov and Yuri Gagarin

•A golden olive branch, left by the crew of Apollo 11

The moon alone currently hosts nearly 400,000 pounds of man-made trash and toxic waste. That is humankind's monument on the moon, a mirror of what we’ve built on the Earth.

As for Mars, the planet has nine recognized landing sites and 18,631 pounds of trash and wrecked spacecraft.

Earth’s orbit holds nearly 20,000 trackable pieces of space junk, weighing in at 2,000 tons.