Decluttering low-Earth orbit: It's time to tidy up space
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Re: Decluttering low-Earth orbit: It's time to tidy up space
#2We have a nice podcast episode on this topic. We go into a few scenarios on how this might end and how it could be fixed.
(You can skip the first 30 seconds of intro)
https://www.predictions-podcast.com/2020/03/14/space-debris-...
Re: Decluttering low-Earth orbit: It's time to tidy up space
#3Is this really a thing... orbit is a vastly bigger place than the earths surface... you’d have to try pretty hard to hit that junk wouldn’t you?
Re: Decluttering low-Earth orbit: It's time to tidy up space
#4Can a large magnetic pulse for a short duration get shards to at least come together & somehow be yeeted down towards earth?
Re: Decluttering low-Earth orbit: It's time to tidy up space
#5There's a near-future hard science fiction manga and anime series Planetes, about these cleaning workers:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes
Re: Decluttering low-Earth orbit: It's time to tidy up space
#6Probably not a HN tier comment, but there's a great anime about space debris cleanup.
Re: Decluttering low-Earth orbit: It's time to tidy up space
#7Can a large magnetic pulse for a short duration get shards to at least come together & somehow be yeeted down towards earth?
Unlikely for several reasons. The volume of space is enormous, many shards aren't ferrous, and a magnetic field that intense would damage things on the ground.
Re: Decluttering low-Earth orbit: It's time to tidy up space
#8Is this really a thing... orbit is a vastly bigger place than the earths surface... you’d have to try pretty hard to hit that junk wouldn’t you?
on the other hand you move a lot faster than one usually does on earths surface
Re: Decluttering low-Earth orbit: It's time to tidy up space
#9Is this really a thing... orbit is a vastly bigger place than the earths surface... you’d have to try pretty hard to hit that junk wouldn’t you?
From what you can read on the Internet, yes it appears to really be a thing. Read up on Kessler Syndrome to understand a bit more on the subject.
The problem is not just about satellites, but random debris flying unpredictably on orbit. When there starts to be a critical number, the odds to hit something start to raise in the "very possible" territory.
The Wikipedia page for Kessler Syndrome even state that, currently, one satellite is destroyed every year by junk. That's only going to increase if nothing is done.
Re: Decluttering low-Earth orbit: It's time to tidy up space
#10curious of the price of de-orbiting an m6 screw (say m = 4g, v = 8000m/s) given it has the same kinetic energy as a small car (m = 1000kg v = 16m/s).