Satellites Crash in Space, Debris Scatters

[bounty]

ion engine + large nano-fiber-kevlar basket? Sounds like an arcade game to me.

 

[zak_mckraken]

Just use a conventional method but add the word "space" before it. Send in a space-maid with a space-vaccum and a space-duster. She'll do an awesome space-job. Kinda like Spaceballs's Mega Maid!

 

[ginbong46]

This article reminds me of the award winning anime Planetes.

The story is about people cleaning up space debris lol

 

[falcompsx]

[citation][nom]demonhorde665[/nom]no i serioiusly doubt that out tax dollars are all going to space , as it is the space program is very very unpopular with the goverment right now , because of the finacial cost as well as the reccent loss of life that occured a couple of years ago. our tax dollars all went to war and the reccent bail out money that bush handed to the oil and car industries, and i for one truthfyully think it would ahve been better spent on space. These corparations screw peopel over every day , and then out goverment hands them more money so they can continue screwing people over ... all the while people complain when the goverment gives a little bit of money to NASA for doing things that just may benifit us all one day. I don't even think Nasa is really seeing ALL the money our goverment claims to give them.back in the 80's every one talked about how 2005 would be the year that nasa builds a ship for going to mars , and that it would launch by 2010 , but thanks to war and greddy burecrats it now looks as though the dream of a mar landing will never happen at least not in any of our life times. you hoenstly ask me what is a better way to spend tax money hmm lets see 1. war ... lotta death , we get to kill a lotta arabs that had nothing to do with 9/11, then give money to corerates that already screwed thier companies into a hole, so they can keep screwing their companies up or option 2 2. space , so we can land on mars adn quite peacefully explore it... hmmm geee wow i think i will take teh first choice cos it the AMERICAN choice ... don't yopu love teh sound of bombs fallign in the morning[/citation]

yeah, theres definately only two options here. Bomb brown people, or explore space. No middle ground there.

 

[rtfm]

I'm waiting for the news story of the "unfortune" collission with the Iranian satallite.

 

[rtfm]

As for disposal. Satellites could be sent up with little thrusters which either fire them into space or into the seaat the end of their life. Problem solved (for new satellites anyway).

 

[demonhorde665]

[citation][nom]neiroatopelcc[/nom]@ demonhorde665 : What about a third option? Education and social services would be my guess. That way people like you could learn to spell, and those who've got miserable lives could live a bit less miserably.[/citation]


Again another a-hole with no life trying to tell some one they can't spell, just because they can't type good when they are sleepy.
I was dead tired when I posted that, so instead of being a smart a-- jerk, why don't you try to read the general content of what I said and post an actual reply in regards to it. Instead of insulting my intelligence because I had typos on a message board that offers NO spell checking.

Get a life loser.

 

[demonhorde665]

[citation][nom]falcompsx[/nom]yeah, theres definately only two options here. Bomb brown people, or explore space. No middle ground there.[/citation]

well i wasn't suggesting those were the only options. obviously there are many other things to spend tax money on. Just pointing out the fact that the US goverment would rather spend money on waring in the middle east. than furthering our efforts in space exploration, But also of considration is the fact that now, we have no choice in the matter because the prievious president spent all we had to spend on war. Hopefully Obama will get us back to where we have more options again. but only time will tell.

 

[demonhorde665]

[citation][nom]falcompsx[/nom]yeah, theres definately only two options here. Bomb brown people, or explore space. No middle ground there.[/citation]

Well I wasn't suggesting those were the only options. obviously there are many other things to spend tax money on. Just pointing out the fact that the US goverment would rather spend money on waring in the middle east. than furthering our efforts in space exploration, But also of considration is the fact that now, we have no choice in the matter because the prievious president spent all we had to spend on war. Hopefully Obama will get us back to where we have more options again. but only time will tell.

 

[RADIO_ACTIVE]

lol hope they have insurance

 

[Regected]

[citation][nom]demonhorde665[/nom]Well I wasn't suggesting those were the only options. obviously there are many other things to spend tax money on. Just pointing out the fact that the US goverment would rather spend money on waring in the middle east. than furthering our efforts in space exploration, But also of considration is the fact that now, we have no choice in the matter because the prievious president spent all we had to spend on war. Hopefully Obama will get us back to where we have more options again. but only time will tell.[/citation]

Don't forget the US government just decided to hand out 800 billion of money it does not have to big businesses and special interest groups that have recently made bad business decisions.

I wonder if a robotic recycling satellite would be commercially feasible. Use it to gather low earth orbit debris, compact it and safely return the debris to earth for further processing. Rare hydrogen isotopes anyone?

 

[JonnyDough]

So when does the world decide to blame the U.S. for all the space trash and then expect us to put a craft in orbit to go around cleaning it all up?

 

[JonnyDough]

[citation][nom]Regected[/nom]Don't forget the US government just decided to hand out 800 billion of money it does not have to big businesses and special interest groups that have recently made bad business decisions. I wonder if a robotic recycling satellite would be commercially feasible. Use it to gather low earth orbit debris, compact it and safely return the debris to earth for further processing. Rare hydrogen isotopes anyone?[/citation]

I think that it would likely be mostly junk (a garble of metal, etc), although I'm sure you could find some rare minerals. The hardest part would be having to weld it together in space and attach a rocket to it so that you can move it above an ocean before having it take the fall. You'd also have to make some sort of shield to keep it from burning up upon entry.

It is more likely that they would attempt to just send junk towards there earth where it would burn up upon re-entry. The only way to actually recycle it would be to keep it in space and use it there.


Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the following:

A collection craft would likely consist of a mother-ship of sorts, with tiny little craft that use a magnetic to collect metal. Using small craft (basically a tiny rocket) would reduce fuel consumption and allow for more low-orbit collecting, as a ship with more mass (i.e. one giant ship) would be more likely to be pulled in by the earth's gravity.

Anything non-magnetic would have to be gathered using some type of a net.

 

[DeadlyPredator]

The space cleaning satellite would probably be the best solution, but don't forget thoose metal pieces are currently travelling at thousands mph...

 

[davidgbailey]

I watched some show talking about space debris on television. They said that a grain of sand travelling at the typical orbit speed would blow right through someone's leg and possibly even the bone. That's pretty insane. I could only image what a bolt could do. I assume that a single bolt at those speeds could destroy a space station. We don't have all of those really cool self-sealing mechanisms the space ships have in the futuristic Sci-fi shows have. It would just die.

 

[sandmanwn]

All the new satellites propel themselves into suicide plunges into the ocean near the end of life. Its all the old crap that's floating around in orbit that is causing these issues. Question is, do you spend billions of dollars to clean space up when eventually it will fall to earth and clean itself up anyway? Seems counter productive since all these satellites seem to be in low orbit and will be gone in a few years anyway.

Yes they do have insurance, but as far as i know it only covers the launching and deployment of these satellites. I don't know how accidental collisions are handled but I imagine a lawsuit will be involved that will last years, cost millions of dollars, and never accomplish anything.

 

[chris312]

[citation][nom]demonhorde665[/nom]Again another a-hole with no life trying to tell some one they can't spell, just because they can't type good when they are sleepy.I was dead tired when I posted that, so instead of being a smart a-- jerk, why don't you try to read the general content of what I said and post an actual reply in regards to it. Instead of insulting my intelligence because I had typos on a message board that offers NO spell checking. Get a life loser.[/citation]

It's seriously hard to read what you write, man. Firefox has a built-in spellchecker and you can always copy and paste from Word.

PS: When you get all defensive about someone insulting your spelling just because you have typos and then immediately insult them just for calling you on grammar, you aren't being clever. You're being a hypocrite.

 

[grieve]

I envision a good Caveman Geico commercial comming from this.

 

[lordfisch]

[citation][nom]geoffs[/nom]A vacuum cleaner wouldn't work in space[/citation]
But it's space debris! A "vacuum cleaner" is exactly what we need! Hahaha!