Comments on: China creates space debris, intentionally

By: DGHizz

DGHizz — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:26:09 +0000

We still haven’t cleaned up the floating island of plastic in the ocean and you are talking about cleaning up LEO? The Politicians will set up a committee to study the feasability of conducting a study that will be in committee for 30 years. Someone else needs to get up there with a private company and show feasability of safe junk mitigation and then offer the service to the countries with sats up there. Not gonna happen soon enough otherwise.

By: Some Dude

Some Dude — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:04:46 +0000

We invest in space tractors! They’d only have to go a bit slower then the debris and just orbit around collecting all the space junk. They could be remote controlled and dock with the ISS for refueling and repairs. And then we can either send the junk up into the Sun or recycle what can be. It’s not the hard, just expensive.

Of course Humanity WILL tear each other to pieces before committing to such a plan.

By: NASA Needs Space Debris Collectors to Protect Satellites

NASA Needs Space Debris Collectors to Protect Satellites — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:15:20 +0000

[...] before it gets to be much more of a problem. Think on this in 2006.Lance WinslowRelated blog postsChina creates space debris, intentionally | Cyde Weys MusingsSpace Debris May be Catastrophic to Future Missions (and Google …FEATURE: Space Sustainability: To [...]

By: pete

pete — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:12:26 +0000

i think if we equip each satellite with a tractor beam and a really hungry guy the hungry guy can eat all the leftovers in the trash he can also make a fort out of all the other junk so it will protect the sattilite from the chinese bombs im hungry

By: victoria

victoria — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:53:23 +0000

Why not, it’s not like we havent trashed everything and everywhere else might as well take it into space!

By: Boogs

Boogs — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:36:09 +0000

I think that the debris will be a great defence against E.T’s attacking the home land!!

By: R. Wiccan

R. Wiccan — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 03:10:48 +0000

First we put multiple ring shaped magnets (maybe electro-magnets powered by small nuclear reactors in the rocket bodies) around the top stages of orbital rockets, (the rocket is inside the center holes of the magnets)and fill the spaces between magnets with Silly Putty. These rockets are launched into the orbits of the densest clouds of debris, with velocities just a little faster or a little slower than the debris. Each orbit should vary a little over months or years so the magnets can go near the majority of the debris & the debris can embed itself in the Silly Putty. These rocket/magnet combos should stay in orbit permanently. More debis is sure to happen. Someday we will have to retrieve them (when we have squandered our natural resources) as a supply of metal.

By: Alphonse

Alphonse — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:36:46 +0000

Cripes you guys have limited thinking capacity. We needs to get us some space fly paper. It’ll work cos it’s real light so it’s easy to get up there. Tape it together with space tape to make one giant sheet and then set it orbiting for a few years to collect all the crap. It can have a little rocket motor attached to the bottom corner so that when we are ready it can have a little nudge to send it earthwards where it and all the crap will burn up. Also it won’t be long till space ships have shields anyway. I went to space camp, I know what I’m talking about.

By: Hac

Hac — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:10:05 +0000

you need a new editor.

By: William (green)

William (green) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 23:37:55 +0000

That’s… a much better idea.

By: DGHarrison

DGHarrison — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:42:44 +0000

Hey, maybe it’s a great opportunity to invest in Roomba. They’d create a bunch of mass-dense objects that simply get in the way of the zooming particles and absorb them. Make the objects so that they do not disintegrate, but become a substrate to which everything else sticks. After these Spaceba have been up for a while, sweeping all the tiny particles up, then send up a bigger unit, an Orba, to sweep up the big pieces. Eventually, rendezvous with the Orba, attach propellant rockets, and either decelerate the junk for burn-up in Earth’s atmosphere, or accelerate the junk to send it on a track toward the sun, where it will burn up.

By: William (green)

William (green) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:09:57 +0000

Todd’s idea may not work like that, but a vast network of microsats working on the same principle might work well. I mean, if you can just get a portion of the debris into trackable-sized chunks, that alone would help significantly.
At least until we have Trek-style Bussard collectors, anyway.

By: Matrix

Matrix — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:16:29 +0000

nicole – don’t you think there will be even more smaller pieces if they destroy it with laser ? That means more of them and more danger !!! By pushing them away with some force will mean that they will at least go a bit farther away… which makes sense.

By: WeCanbGod2

WeCanbGod2 — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 06:03:03 +0000

Scott and J are onto something… Send up more garbage, lash it all together with the other crap, and name it, “Trash Planet II” (Earth, being the first “Trash Planet”)

See? We can be God, too! Destroy one planet, and create a new one from some of the junk from the first one, kinda like making Eve, from Adam’s rib, or the Moon, from the Earth.

By: j

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 03:33:12 +0000

send up more debris to accelerate the process of orbital decay of these objects.

By: Cyde Weys

Cyde Weys — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 13:01:39 +0000

Todd, a couple of problems with that. The electromagnetic force, like gravity, is affected by the inverse-square law. You can test this yourself by holding two magnets in your hands close together. Then move them twice that distance apart. The force you feel between them (either attractive or repulsive depending on pole alignment) will decrease by four times. Move them three times as far apart and the force decreases by nine times, etc. So it simply won’t work to sweep up debris from all but the smallest distances.

Additionally, you would need a very powerful magnet. A permanent magnet is right out of the question, as for the size you’d need it’d be too difficult to launch into orbit. So you’d need a powerful electromagnet, but this creates yet another problem: where will you get all the electricity to power it?

And lastly, a lot of the space junk up there isn’t ferrous. Because things we put into space need to be as light as possible, we tend to make them out of lighter materials, such as plastics and aluminum, which are not magnetic. Keep in mind the relative orbital speeds of space debris — many thousands of feet per second — and you realize why it doesn’t particularly matter what the debris is made of in terms of assessing its deadliness.

So I’m not sure what a solution would even be. That’s why the Kessler Syndrome is so dangerous.

By: todd

todd — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:42:54 +0000

Why not a rocket with a giant magnet, fly it thru orbit and into space hehehehe If theirs no gravity the metalic objects should change course to the magnet and go with the rocket. Providing it doesn’t get oblerated by the moving pieces lol

By: Cyde Weys

Cyde Weys — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 12:56:59 +0000

Nicole: Not likely at all. Unfortunately, lasers don’t work in the real world the same way that they do in, say, Star Wars. It takes a tremendous amount of energy to create a laser beam with the kind of effect you’d be looking for, energy that is viciously lacking in space. Also, in space, the tiniest particle of debris is dangerous. Remember that whole conservation of mass thing; lasers won’t evaporate debris, they’ll simply turn it into smaller chunks, which is more dangerous.

The only way to deal with space debris is to deorbit it, which is incredibly hard.

By: nicole

nicole — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:18:31 +0000

Scott, lasers could be attached to satellites to destroy smaller pieces of debris that threaten a space vehicle not to just move them “out of the way.”

By: knacker

knacker — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 01:04:42 +0000

Yeah, seeker, think positive. We may wipe out only half to 3/4ths of the human race, creating a situation akin to the end of the plague, in which population had dropped off so much that almost everyone was rich and had enough resources, leading to the Renaissance.

By: scott

scott — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 04:09:52 +0000

seeker, think positive. knacker, i dont know what shining a light at it will do, even with high intensity lasers its just gonna heat up an be a hunk of hot for a few hours. its still gonna be speeding around at 18,000 mph. a laser is just a beam of light and has no measurable mass therefore no measurable inertia so it cant push it away either. no i agree with the tracs collecting commercially, the only problem with it i see is what do you do with it once uve got it? bringin it back is not a great idea, were polluted enough down here as it is. i think it should be collected and strapped together at a very high orbit. then recycle it for new, more permenant space ventures.

By: Knacker

Knacker — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 12:30:49 +0000

lasers

By: Old Man Miso

Old Man Miso — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 03:01:36 +0000

That job of space debris “trash collector” already has an anime of its own. A serious one, at that.
Called: “Planetes”. Deals with that topic, as well as a few other concerns of the near-term use of, and life in, space.

By: space R.E.B.U.

space R.E.B.U. — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:37:53 +0000

good, really good

I am offering for the job of space junk gatherer, it should be paid well :)

By: Seeker

Seeker — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 03:53:28 +0000

This is not good…. if they have missiles that can take out satellites that can pose a great threat to people… and for your statement garzafzmily; The human race is going to destroy each other before we can reach space commercially

By: A space debris heads up | Cyde Weys Musings

A space debris heads up | Cyde Weys Musings — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 04:23:19 +0000

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