Space Junk
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,429
I saw this article today and a similar one in the Sunday Sac. Bee.
My first reaction was, "Great idea! It's about time we clean up space."
My second reaction was, "But why don't we just stop sending crap up there in the first place? How much carbon does one rocket throw into the atmosphere? Maybe as much as my life times worth of driving?"
My third reaction was, "But isn't the internet dependent on satellites and because I use the internet isn't some of that junk and some of that carbon mine?" :oops:
Other thoughts?
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/15/426523 ... lites.html
Swiss craft janitor satellites to grab space junk
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By JOHN HEILPRIN
Associated Press
Published: Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012 - 4:56 am
Last Modified: Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012 - 9:41 am
GENEVA -- The tidy Swiss want to clean up space.
Swiss scientists said Wednesday they plan to launch a "janitor satellite" specially designed to get rid of space junk, the orbiting debris that can do serious and costly damage to valuable satellites or even manned space ships.
The 10-million-franc ($11-million) satellite called CleanSpace One - the prototype for a family of such satellites - is being built by the Swiss Space Center at the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology in Lausanne, or EPFL.
Its launch would come within three to five years and its first tasks will be to grab two Swiss satellites that were launched in 2009 and 2010 but will be phased out of use, EPFL said.
The U.S. space agency NASA says over 500,000 pieces of spent rocket stages, broken satellites and other debris are orbiting Earth. The debris travels at speeds approaching 17,500 miles per hour (28,000 kilometers per hour), fast enough to destroy or inflict expensive and time-draining damage on a satellite or spacecraft. Collisions, in turn, generate more fragments floating in space.
Space junk has collided with satellites at least twice: In 1996, a French satellite was damaged by a rocket fragment, and in 2009, a satellite owned by U.S.-based Iridium Communications was destroyed in a collision with a derelict Russian satellite.
"It has become essential to be aware of the existence of this debris and the risks that are run by its proliferation," said Claude Nicollier, an astronaut and EPFL professor.
Building the satellite means developing new technology to address three big problems, scientists say.
The first hurdle has to do with trajectory: The satellite has to be able to adjust its path to match that of its target. EPFL said its labs are looking into a new ultra-compact motor that can do this.
Next, the satellite has to be able to grab hold of and stabilize the debris at high speeds. Scientists are studying how plants and animals grip things as a model for what would be used.
And, finally, CleanSpace One then has to be able to guide the debris, or unwanted satellites, back into Earth's atmosphere, where both the Swiss-made satellite and the floating garbage it collects would burn on re-entry.
The Swiss Space Center's director, Volker Gass, said it hopes to someday "offer and sell a whole family of ready-made systems, designed as sustainably as possible, that are able to de-orbit several different kinds of satellites."
It remains to be seen how cost-effective the satellites are since each one would be destroyed after its mission, but governments might provide some funding if governments agree to rules to limit debris.
In 2007, China purposely destroyed one of its own satellites with a missile in a test, putting an estimated 150,000 smaller pieces of debris into space and 3,000 big enough to be tracked by radar on the ground.
More recently, Russia's $170 million planned Mars moon probe got stranded in Earth's orbit after its Nov. 9 launch. Efforts by Russian and European Space Agency experts to bring it back to life failed. It was one of the heaviest and most toxic pieces of space junk ever to crash to Earth.
There have been no reports of anyone ever being hit by it on Earth, but the problem it poses has slowly gained traction in political circles in the decades since the space age began more than a half-century ago.
The European Union has proposed its own draft rules for operating in space and the United States views that document as a starting point.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned last month of the space environment is threatened by space junk, and said the U.S. will hold talks with the EU to set informal rules aimed at limiting debris.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/15/426523 ... rylink=cpy
My first reaction was, "Great idea! It's about time we clean up space."
My second reaction was, "But why don't we just stop sending crap up there in the first place? How much carbon does one rocket throw into the atmosphere? Maybe as much as my life times worth of driving?"
My third reaction was, "But isn't the internet dependent on satellites and because I use the internet isn't some of that junk and some of that carbon mine?" :oops:
Other thoughts?
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/15/426523 ... lites.html
Swiss craft janitor satellites to grab space junk
Share
By JOHN HEILPRIN
Associated Press
Published: Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012 - 4:56 am
Last Modified: Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012 - 9:41 am
GENEVA -- The tidy Swiss want to clean up space.
Swiss scientists said Wednesday they plan to launch a "janitor satellite" specially designed to get rid of space junk, the orbiting debris that can do serious and costly damage to valuable satellites or even manned space ships.
The 10-million-franc ($11-million) satellite called CleanSpace One - the prototype for a family of such satellites - is being built by the Swiss Space Center at the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology in Lausanne, or EPFL.
Its launch would come within three to five years and its first tasks will be to grab two Swiss satellites that were launched in 2009 and 2010 but will be phased out of use, EPFL said.
The U.S. space agency NASA says over 500,000 pieces of spent rocket stages, broken satellites and other debris are orbiting Earth. The debris travels at speeds approaching 17,500 miles per hour (28,000 kilometers per hour), fast enough to destroy or inflict expensive and time-draining damage on a satellite or spacecraft. Collisions, in turn, generate more fragments floating in space.
Space junk has collided with satellites at least twice: In 1996, a French satellite was damaged by a rocket fragment, and in 2009, a satellite owned by U.S.-based Iridium Communications was destroyed in a collision with a derelict Russian satellite.
"It has become essential to be aware of the existence of this debris and the risks that are run by its proliferation," said Claude Nicollier, an astronaut and EPFL professor.
Building the satellite means developing new technology to address three big problems, scientists say.
The first hurdle has to do with trajectory: The satellite has to be able to adjust its path to match that of its target. EPFL said its labs are looking into a new ultra-compact motor that can do this.
Next, the satellite has to be able to grab hold of and stabilize the debris at high speeds. Scientists are studying how plants and animals grip things as a model for what would be used.
And, finally, CleanSpace One then has to be able to guide the debris, or unwanted satellites, back into Earth's atmosphere, where both the Swiss-made satellite and the floating garbage it collects would burn on re-entry.
The Swiss Space Center's director, Volker Gass, said it hopes to someday "offer and sell a whole family of ready-made systems, designed as sustainably as possible, that are able to de-orbit several different kinds of satellites."
It remains to be seen how cost-effective the satellites are since each one would be destroyed after its mission, but governments might provide some funding if governments agree to rules to limit debris.
In 2007, China purposely destroyed one of its own satellites with a missile in a test, putting an estimated 150,000 smaller pieces of debris into space and 3,000 big enough to be tracked by radar on the ground.
More recently, Russia's $170 million planned Mars moon probe got stranded in Earth's orbit after its Nov. 9 launch. Efforts by Russian and European Space Agency experts to bring it back to life failed. It was one of the heaviest and most toxic pieces of space junk ever to crash to Earth.
There have been no reports of anyone ever being hit by it on Earth, but the problem it poses has slowly gained traction in political circles in the decades since the space age began more than a half-century ago.
The European Union has proposed its own draft rules for operating in space and the United States views that document as a starting point.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned last month of the space environment is threatened by space junk, and said the U.S. will hold talks with the EU to set informal rules aimed at limiting debris.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/15/426523 ... rylink=cpy
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!"
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
"Try to not spook the horse."
-Neil Young
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Comments
More to the point is do we need all those satellites? Whilst I understand they are indispensable now, I am sure there are a lot that are 'duplicated' by the various countries. Pooling their resources and 'sharing' one satellite would be better than sending 5 or 6 doing the same thing. Though I don't believe this will really happen - the military, the competition when it comes to research, the big bucks involved in communications.... all will want to keep their bit up there!
A bit scary to think that not only we are killing our planet (where we live), we are also messing up space where we don't even have much of a presence. Furthermore, we don't really know what the consequences of polluting space can be.
PS - are you from Sacramento (if I may ask)? You mention the Bee.
just a visual
serious problem ... just as bad as the plastic flotilla in the Pacific
Amazing how dirty it is up there in 50 years since sputnik
I keep on having dreams of that above mess as an egg and a huge solar flare as male swimmers.
And, it's the collisions that then cause exponential growth of debris. Crazy to think about.
this photo is real or representative?
If I opened it now would you not understand?
Its real.
It's all plastic containers. Shampoo & toothpast & whatnots
LOL.
... WHAT?
Motherfuckers be throwing their TOOTHPASTE AND SHAMPOO up so high that it hits the "Space-mo-sphere" ???
Disbelieve.
But could it be old rocket parts,
or dead walruses ?
Or is it "walri" ?
If I opened it now would you not understand?
My guess is, if aliens have visited earth they've probably said, "Ok, this solar system has a dump but where do the civilized people live?"
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
god dammit
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
I mean,
I'm assuming the astronauts just pee in empty beer bottles like truckers, then toss it out the window?
Makes sense to me.
:P
If I opened it now would you not understand?
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Although Devo's Space Junk is running through my head when i see the title of this thread. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMVqVXDUdaU