After 5 Years of Construction, 'Space Fence' Finally Declared Operational (spacenews.com) 37
An anonymous reader quotes Space News:
The space surveillance radar site known as the Space Fence is ready for use after five years in construction, the U.S. Space Force announced March 27. The $1.5 billion Space Fence — located on Kwajalein Island in the Republic of the Marshall Islands — is a ground-based radar system that tracks satellites and space debris primarily in low Earth orbit...
The Space Fence can track tiny objects as small as a marble. It also provides a search capability for objects at higher orbits. Data from the Space Fence will feed into the military's Space Surveillance Network. The Space Surveillance Network tracks about 26,000 objects. The addition of the Space Fence will increase the catalog size significantly over time, the Space Force said in a news release... "Space Fence is revolutionizing the way we view space by providing timely, precise orbital data on objects that threaten both manned and unmanned military and commercial space assets," said Chief of Space Operations Gen. John Raymond.
The Space Fence can track tiny objects as small as a marble. It also provides a search capability for objects at higher orbits. Data from the Space Fence will feed into the military's Space Surveillance Network. The Space Surveillance Network tracks about 26,000 objects. The addition of the Space Fence will increase the catalog size significantly over time, the Space Force said in a news release... "Space Fence is revolutionizing the way we view space by providing timely, precise orbital data on objects that threaten both manned and unmanned military and commercial space assets," said Chief of Space Operations Gen. John Raymond.
Refresh my memory (Score:2)
Wasn't there a proposal years ago to use lasers to push down space junk? The idea was to fire at the "top" of a piece of junk and push it into a lower orbit, thus allowing it to eventually fall to Earth.
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Oh, I'm sure the Giant Space Laser is also in the works. For peaceful purposes of course.
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Prior requirement (Score:2)
Oh, I'm sure the Giant Space Laser is also in the works.
It's in the works, yes.
But before it gets released into production, you first need to wait for the Giant Space Shark.
Re:Refresh my memory (Score:5, Informative)
The idea was to fire at the "top" of a piece of junk and push it into a lower orbit, thus allowing it to eventually fall to Earth.
I believe the proposal is to fire at the "front" of the object, thus slowing it down and causing it to drop into the atmosphere. Firing at the front can be done with a ground-based laser. It is much harder to hit the top.
If an object is small enough, it will deorbit on its own. Orbital drag per unit mass goes up as the inverse cube root of the volume. Half the diameter, twice the deceleration.
Re: Refresh my memory (Score:1)
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Drag goes up as the square of the radius. Mass goes up as the cube of the radius. So " ballistic coefficient" is indeed affected by the size of the object.
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Physical size has nothing to do with orbital lifetimes.
Bullcrap.
a solar panel flying broad side to the wind.
We are discussing debris. To keep a single side facing the direction of orbit would require gyroscopes, chronometers, and active rotation.
Space Fence? (Score:5, Insightful)
The Space Fence can track tiny objects as small as a marble.
Can it keep things in/out or even separate things? No? Then it's not a fence. Just sayin' ...
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The Space Fence can track tiny objects as small as a marble.
Can it keep things in/out or even separate things? No? Then it's not a fence. Just sayin' ...
Hopefully, for most rational people, the ability to track space objects and debris is much more important that the specific term used to describe it. I realize for some its more important to get stuck on semantics and stay within their TDS sphere at all costs.
Trump was mocked heavily by folks right here about the creation the new arm of service. And yet we now have a critical information tool at out disposal as well as a centralized tracking authority. That's why he and many others really don't give a
Re:Space Fence? (Score:4, Insightful)
Trump was mocked heavily by folks right here about the creation the new arm of service. And yet we now have a critical information tool at out disposal as well as a centralized tracking authority.
Yes, we certainly couldn't have had that w/o Space Force. /sarcasm
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This was planned long before Trump and his Space Jockettes...note the 5 years of construction in the blurb. And before that it had to be planned.
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Re:Space Fence? (Score:5, Funny)
note the 5 years of construction
Tear down that wimpy Obama Fence and build a Space Wall!
And make the moon pay for it!
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Martians?
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Trumptards in action.
More of trumps 4th dimensional chess... he had Space Force travel back in time over 5 years ago to begin a long term project so they could have something to show in their 1st year of existence.
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Well, construction was started 5 years ago, before Trump was in office. I doubt that changing its name affected the success of the project one way or the other.
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I installed a Camera in my yard. Keeps all the squirrels out.
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I installed a Camera in my yard. Keeps all the squirrels out.
Well... they can be shy sometimes -- and, as we all know, the camera adds 10 pounds.
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Could be named after the neighborhood fence - a profitable clearinghouse for "found" items.
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Well, It's a fence in the sense that it allows satellites to better protect themselves from impacts. Detection being an important part of that.
Up until now, we've only really been tracking debris that was 10cm or larger. Debris smaller than 1cm is typically armored against. But that 1-10cm range was a real problem: hard spot with radar, a ridiculous count of objects to track, and too large to armor against effectively.
Tracking objects down to 1cm will make a real difference in satellite survivabilty in L
Keep the Martians out (Score:5, Funny)
The new space fence is big and beautiful and we're going to get Mars to pay for it.
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Nah. The expense will be taken care of by charging any country or private company that wants access to the collected tracking data. With foreign countries and private industry crowding earth orbit with more and more satellites the collected information will become indispensable.
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I think if we just lock up Elon Musk, we'd decrease the expected increase in space junk by 50%.
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I think if we just lock up Elon Musk, we'd decrease the expected increase in space junk by 50%.
That's the ticket. Bar the Chinese and we take care of the other 50%.
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CHFT. "Space Fence" was just too juicy to leave it hanging so low.
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Instead, the bill will fall on Uranus.
At last (Score:4, Funny)
We'll be able to stop the Space Mexicans from getting in!
Oh thank god (Score:2)
The very newly formed Space Force announced that they have completed a 5 year old project. Clearly this would never have been achieved without them. All those people saying that we desperately needed Space Force and it's not just the creation of a president desperate to be known for something other than impeachment were right after-all!
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In the old days they never even used the time machine, because then everybody would know we had it and we'd lose the element of surprise.
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Idiot.
The current Space Force has been Space Command in the Air Force for closing in on *40 years*. The plan to split them off as a separate force has been in work for nearly as long - since about the Clinton administration.
Completing a Space Command mission that has been in work for 5, 10, 20 years is no issue.
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The current Space Force has been Space Command in the Air Force for closing in on *40 years*.
So it already existed! Damn here Trump was saying he invented it. How dare you call Trump a liar. Bloody democrats criticise everything our lord and sav... err president does.
"Marble" is subjective . . . (Score:2)
. . . and the word should be disdained here for the same reason meteorologists ask that hail reports be given in clear measurements.
Space France (Score:2)
FWIW (Score:2)
If this "Space Fence" has been in construction for 5 years, that means it was started under Obama.
Thunderbird's fence any better? (Score:2)