Calling Oppo space nerds.

"mkbruin, Atlas VP" (mkbruin) 01/26/2018 at 16:04 • Filed to: None

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Legitimate question. Is it even possible to clean up the ridiculous amount of space junk orbiting earth right now? Remember, it’s only getting worse...

I’m honestly amazed there are not more collisions resulting in catastrophic chain reactions...

Gerry197 > mkbruin, Atlas VP 01/26/2018 at 16:14

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Space is huge, even around Earth orbit. As much junk as there is there, the chances of collisions is pretty small, for now.

Also, a lot of that junk is rather small and tiny.

Wacko > mkbruin, Atlas VP 01/26/2018 at 16:15

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looks like my desk at work

Die-Trying > mkbruin, Atlas VP 01/26/2018 at 16:18

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we will have or own ring...... like saturn......

benjrblant > mkbruin, Atlas VP 01/26/2018 at 16:23

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It seems like a bunch of stuff, but the surface area of a sphere with a diameter 80-100 miles bigger than earth is MASSIVE. In terms of quantity, it’s a lot of space junk. In terms of density it’s really not that great.

I’m no expert, but I suspect a device/ship would need to track down a piece of junk, accelerate to its relative speed, then either accelerate it at a tangent to orbit and shoot it off into nowhere or slow it down enough so that the junk vaporizes on re-entry.

WRXforScience > mkbruin, Atlas VP 01/26/2018 at 16:35

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Couple of points:

1. Space is big and we track things as small as bolts. We get a little worried when they pass within 100mi of satellites. We have to worry because orbital speed is about 17,000mph, so little stuff moving that fast can do lots of damage.

2. The Earth’s atmosphere extends out into the orbits of most satellites (technically it decreases with altitude until it is as thin as the surrounding space). The thin atmosphere there isn’t enough to slow stuff down quickly, but eventually it’ll slow down your garbage enough to cause it to de-orbit.

Space debris is a problem and if left alone it’ll only get worse (unless we quit sending garbage into space for a few decades). There are possible solutions and we’ll start to implement them once the problem is significant to start costing money, launch windows, and/or available orbits.

user314 > mkbruin, Atlas VP 01/26/2018 at 16:49

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We’ll have to commission a group to use “debris ships to clean up LEO...

f86sabre > mkbruin, Atlas VP 01/26/2018 at 18:30

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I think we can deal with it if we really need to. One of the thing defense folks worry about is someone like North Korea destroying a bunch of satellites in an effort to send debris in the GPS satellites.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > mkbruin, Atlas VP 01/26/2018 at 19:52

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there have been a number of proposals. One is a giant net for the big stuff or aerogel into balistic gel. the problem is even if the thing is 1 mile by 1 mile wide it would be the equivalent of using a fish tank net to clean an olymplic pool.