Clean Up Space for Moonhack

Humans have been sending objects into space for more than 60 years! In this Scratch game for Moonhack you’ll create a solution that uses two typical means of cleaning up space junk: bringing it home to Earth or burning it in the atmosphere to simulate a Space Junk clean-up operation. (There’s even a flying flaming taco!)

Space junk has existed since the first human-made satellite escaped the gravitational pull of the Earth — Sputnik I in 1957. There’s so much rubbish in space that astronauts have to make sure they don’t hit anything! They do this by learning about Space Situational Awareness, meaning that astronauts need to be aware of the ‘situations’ of the items in space so they don’t collide!

Some of the junk in space includes spatulas, screwdrivers, paint chips and garbage bags! (maybe there IS a taco!!). Check out this list of weird space junk- maybe ideas for extra things to add to your game?

So, how do we get rid of it? Well, in our Moonhack game you have two options. You can either bring it back to earth or burn it up upon re-entry. There’s actually a lot of real-world solutions in the works too — like giant magnets and nets!

Getting Started

The Moonhack Space Clean Up game is an easy project to start coding! We’ve built a starter project, with all the sprites and backdrops that you need. The project instructions are available at Moonhack.com/projects

What’s next?

After you’ve finished the Space Clean Up Scratch project there are so many cool things to add to it! Our friends at Code Club in Malaysia added fuel as a limiting factor and a scoring system!

Teachers, check out our curriculum blog post for ideas on extra things to do in class (or to assign to your students at home).

Our amazing friends at Space Australia helped us with this project! Big thanks to Rami!