Target of European Space Debris Removal Mission Is Itself Hit by Space Debris (bloomberg.com) 21
A piece of space debris being monitored by the European Space Agency as part of a mission to remove trash from space was hit by another piece of debris, splintering the object into more pieces. From a report: ESA confirmed Tuesday that the US's 18th Space Defense Squadron, which tracks objects in orbit, spotted a number of new pieces in the vicinity of a payload adapter named VESPA that the agency had planned to pluck from space. The most likely cause of those new fragments is "the hypervelocity impact of a small, untracked object" ramming into VESPA, according to ESA. VESPA was left over from the launch of a European Vega rocket that took off from South America in 2013. It was part of a cone-shaped attachment used to deploy the rocket's satellite into orbit, and has been in Earth's orbit ever since. ESA said its new fragments don't pose much of a risk to any other spacecraft at the moment.
Sandra Bullock (Score:2)
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Like most meteors, this one went right over my head.
Unexpected events (Score:4, Insightful)
...are usually a good thing during a test, even if it splatters management's schedule. Otherwise, you won't be prepared if it happens again.
Space lasers (Score:3)
Why aren't they using high-intensity lasers to address space debris? Set up something like a mirror collector array to focus the beam to one or more mobile laser satellites capable of burning up the space waste - or at least to push it into a decaying orbit, or out of orbit so it can not be re-captured.
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Perhaps because it would be accused of being an anti-satellite weapon in space, which would be an escalation.
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Lasers powerful enough to ablate enough material in the time that the target is in range, require more power than is available in a satellite.
You could put the laser in a ground station, but then you'd have to be very careful not to shoot down any aircraft in the path of the beam.
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A couple large explosions should do the trick.
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Because such makes Q and MTG freak out.
Surprising, but ... (Score:4)
Target of European Space Debris Removal Mission Is Itself Hit by Space Debris
Way less surprising than if it had been hit by some other type of debris.
[ He said knowing there's literally everything in Space [youtube.com]. :-) ]
18th? (Score:2)
the US's 18th Space Defense Squadron
There are 17 other Space Defense Squadrons? What do they do and why do we need 18 such squadrons?
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the US's 18th Space Defense Squadron
There are 17 other Space Defense Squadrons? What do they do and why do we need 18 such squadrons?
In case Mars attacks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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the US's 18th Space Defense Squadron
There are 17 other Space Defense Squadrons? What do they do and why do we need 18 such squadrons?
Well, I believe that justification can be best summed up in a single acronym: ICBM.
Space defense got pretty damn real after nuclear-armed countries started aiming total annihilation at each other. Go figure the defense is still there, since the threat still is.
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Mitch-in Accomplished (Score:2)
It's colliding turtles all the way down.
Paywall (Score:4)
For Fucks Sake STOP PUBLISHING ARTICLES THAT ARE BEHIND PAYWALLS!
It's not Rocket Science ironically.
If the article is behind a paywall don't accept it.
Re: Paywall (Score:2)
You're expecting an editor to click a link as well as pressing the button to publish? You realise that'd amount to dozens of clicks per day?
Isn't it ironic? (Score:1)
Yo dawg (Score:2)
Yo dawg, I heard you like space debris, so we put space debris in your space debris!
A spokesman said... (Score:1)
'This is the one thing we didn't want to happen'