NASA Warns of Cluttered Space 358
Ant wrote to mention a National Geographic article looking at the cluttered nature of Near-Earth Orbit. From the article: "Since the launch of the Soviet Union's Sputnik I satellite in 1957, humans have been generating space junk. The U.S. Space Surveillance Network is currently tracking over 13,000 human-made objects larger than four inches (ten centimeters) in diameter orbiting the Earth. These include both operational spacecraft and debris such as derelict rocket bodies. 'Of the 13,000 objects, over 40 percent came from breakups of both spacecraft and rocket bodies,'Johnson said."
Re:Turn the problem on its head... (Score:3, Interesting)
ball it up (Score:5, Interesting)
salvage on (Score:2, Interesting)
Track, Capture, Recycle? (Score:4, Interesting)
It sounds like there might be some very valuable materials already in orbit, considering the cost to take up new materials on a launch. I'd love to see "the race to space" be over a bunch of competitive companies working to reclaim and reuse the junk.
Re:Turn the problem on its head... (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, there are numerous ways to retrieve material (see the Long Duration Exposure Facility [wikipedia.org]), but AFAIK, all of them are quite expensive. Something that moves material into a graveyard orbit, or otherwise moves it out of the way of important stuff [wikipedia.org] is probably a much more efficient idea.
(as a sideline, saying that something that anything can be economical enough if people just used their imagination is a little silly... while imagination can make the impossible into the possible, you still have to always compare the cost of doing something one way versus doing it another... and there's always going to be a cheapest way to do something, no matter how much imagination you apply to a problem)
Trapped Earth "doomsday" scenario (Score:5, Interesting)
For example, the EU is now setting up it's own system of GPS satellites. How long until global politics force other countries like China, India, Korea, Japan, etc to put their own systems in place to ensure GPS access during troubled times? Plus communications continue to evolve towards satellite based systems for various reasons and as more countries reach 1st-class tech status they will want their own resources. The idea is that eventually without a specific system in place to mitigate risk humanity could doom itself to staying planetside for generations while we wait for junk to reenter the atmo, or be collected by robots or something.
Maybe now is the time to come up with some plans for the future to do more than just track space junk, and in fact move on to collecting, dispersing, or destroying it.
Good luck making it economical (Score:4, Interesting)
I understand the argument from the standpont that it cost money to put the salvage into orbit. However "collecting" may wind up costing you more than the fragment itself weighs. Consider: Even if you make it up to LEO for free, you have to get to the item and match your position and velocity in the direction the space salvage is traveling to a degree where you (or your robot, whatever) can grab it. Of course you have to abide by the ideal rocket equation http://exploration.grc.nasa.gov/education/rocket/
Roger Wilco! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Breakdown by Country (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Turn the problem on its head... (Score:2, Interesting)
This is space- and we've got a nice big heat source less than 9 light seconds away. A big magnifying glass makes a great foundry under those conditions; especially in a vaccuum where the heat isn't going to disipate except by radiation.
something else to fold it into usefull shapes
Something like say, a sheet press? Or just propel the molten material to where you need it, wait for raidative cooling to harden it, and leave it in place. Or mold it.
and welding equipment to put it together in the space station
Which we've already got in place- to put together the space station....
The whole idea that a used 30 year old rocket motor is going to be usefull for someone in a damn space station is ridiculous.
That's the idea- we don't need no imagination as long as we can label things as being ridiculous!
Re:"Star Trek" Solution to Space Garbage (Score:4, Interesting)
From TFA: it's like any environmental prob... (Score:3, Interesting)
So like all the other environmental problems, a tiny percentage of the population will change it for the better, but the overwhelming majority will still contribute to the problem until it's so bad that, well, most environmental problems are still getting worse, so the outcome of that scenario has yet to be determined. Not good, though, I'd bet.
Kessler syndrome (Score:2, Interesting)
Skimming though the replies, I'm surprised I haven't seen any mention of the Kessler syndrome [wikipedia.org]. In a nutshell, space junk creates more space junk through collisions in a chain reaction that eventually renders LEO [wikipedia.org] unusable for many years.
Perhaps NASA and othe space agencies need to launch satellites that will unfold into giant aerogel [wikipedia.org] panels, similar to the collector on the Stardust spacecraft [wikipedia.org], but on a much larger scale. These giant fly swatters would sweep through space for a few years, picking up paint flecks and other micro-debris before being deorbited.
Of course, these spacecraft would have to steer clear of objects large enough to punch through their panels to avoid contributing to the Kessler syndrome, rather than avoiding it.
Planet ES (Score:4, Interesting)
It is EXCELLENTLY written, and is great fun to watch even if you're not that interested in space trash. Great story, also deals a bit with global economics and what happens when you widen the development/financial gap between 1st and 3rd world countries even more by bringing the massive profits from space mining and tourism into play.
Re:Kessler syndrome (Score:2, Interesting)
That's a possibility, of course. But considering the fact that NASA tracks 13,000 pieces of junk, they also have a very good fix on the location of every active object in LEO. And considering the accuracy of the average space mission, it shouldn't be too difficult to plot an orbit that would avoid valuable satellites, including course corrections where necessary.
Of course, considering the fact that dumb errors [wikipedia.org] have occurred with certain space probes, launching giant aerogel flyswatters would certainly increase satellite operators' insurance premiums.
New Version Old game (Score:2, Interesting)
I think it's got potential...
Sign me as a Gamer, who gamed long ago when all your home system played was pong or double pong(hockey) who fed many a quarters into Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Space Invaders deluxe too, and an all time favorite BattleZone....
I'd be happy to go out and zap the crap!