Kessler Syndrome

#1

Post by msvan » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 12:11 PM UTC

Kessler Syndrome
en.wikipedia.org

Re: Kessler Syndrome

#2

Post by squozzer » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 2:18 PM UTC

I guess we better get some people off this rock before earth orbit becomes unnavigable.

Re: Kessler Syndrome

#3

Post by Gravityloss » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 4:05 PM UTC

squozzer wrote: post #2

I guess we better get some people off this rock before earth orbit becomes unnavigable.

strictly thinking, it doesn't "become", we have made and will make it unnavigable.

Re: Kessler Syndrome

#4

Post by pbhjpbhj » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 4:13 PM UTC

Previously, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16271434 (9 months ago, 51 comments).

Re: Kessler Syndrome

#5

Post by CapitalistCartr » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 4:13 PM UTC

Orbital Debris Quarterly:

https://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/quarterly-news/newsletter...

Re: Kessler Syndrome

#6

Post by Waterluvian » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 4:27 PM UTC

Satellites are a pretty big deal connercially. Maybe something like this would just jumpstart one of our wildly productive bouts of human ingenuity?

Getting to the moon was kind of an insane idea until it happened. To someone wholly uninformed, this feels like it could be similar.

Re: Kessler Syndrome

#7

Post by Someone » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 6:25 PM UTC

Waterluvian wrote: post #6

Satellites are a pretty big deal connercially. Maybe something like this would just jumpstart one of our wildly productive bouts of human ingenuity? Getting to the moon was kind of an insane idea until it happened. To someone wholly uninformed, this feels like it could be similar.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.Deorbit: ”e.Deorbit is a planned European Space Agency active space debris removal mission developed as a part of their Clean Space initiative”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RemoveDEBRIS: ”RemoveDEBRIS is a satellite research project intending to demonstrate various space debris removal technologies.

[…]

RemoveDEBRIS was launched aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on 2 April 2018

[…]

On 16 September 2018, it demonstrated its ability to use net to capture a deployed simulated target.”

Re: Kessler Syndrome

#8

Post by Retric » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 10:06 AM UTC

squozzer wrote: post #2

I guess we better get some people off this rock before earth orbit becomes unnavigable.

That’s not on the table. You can clear LEO in minutes where satilites need clear orbits over years to be useful.

Further, atmospheric drag keeps some orbits clear even in the worst case. The problem is you then need to constantly burn some fuel to maintain orbit.