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Steve Wozniak announces private space company to clean up space debris in orbit

independent.co.uk

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Re: Steve Wozniak announces private space company to clean up space debris in orbit

#41

Post by codetrotter »

everyone wrote: post #35
shantara wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most realistic solution for space junk deorbiting I've seen is the recently tested electromagnetic tether ("Terminator tape"). It is a passive solution that does not require an external spacecraft, and could be activated by a satellite operator when a satellite reaches the end of its lifespan. Perhaps, such system should be made mandatory, maybe even going as far as adding a dead man switch for its automatic acti…

This is the most promising idea I've heard of... https://www.nasa.gov/offices/oct/early_stage_innovation/niac...

Page last updated 2011 according to the footer. Has there been any results of the project, and is it still active?

Re: Steve Wozniak announces private space company to clean up space debris in orbit

#42

Post by panzagl »

ggggtez wrote: post #8
shantara wrote: post #6

What is their business model? This is far from first space debris cleanup company, but regardless of their technical capabilities, all of them are useless until the regulations introduce a requirement for the launch providers and satellite owners to clean their mess.

Presumably, government contracting. Your satellite crashes? Pay us to clean it up.

Given that the largest source of man-made debris is Chinese, I don't see that happening.

Re: Steve Wozniak announces private space company to clean up space debris in orbit

#43

Post by whatshisface »

vasco wrote: post #39

At some point I guess the world will have to regulate orbits similarly to how we regulate the electromagnetic spectrum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectrum_auction Once you're assigned an orbit space I would assume it'd be your duty to keep it "clean" and as such owners of orbits would need to either do their own cleanup or contract companies like this. That being said it feels like a company like this is 50 to 100…

We do regulate orbits. Up until now there have been no cleaner companies so we'll see how that plays in to regulation. "Who will pay for it?" is indeed an interesting question.

It is not too early because the mess produces more mess through collisions, meaning that the sooner you catch it the less expensive it is to fix. Waiting until the problem is directly painful is humanity's normal operating procedure, but it's also like waiting until your cancer is stage 4 before getting it looked at.

Re: Steve Wozniak announces private space company to clean up space debris in orbit

#44

Post by mnd999 »

SonicScrub wrote: post #26
aero-glide2 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They should lobby for a law requiring companies to deorbit satellites after EOL.

Requiring de-orbiting at EOL would destroy their business no? Also EOL de-orbiting works great for low-altitude orbits, but becomes exponentially more difficult with higher orbits. It is pretty much impossible with the very valuable geostationary orbital slots.

I’m guessing they be planning on offering their services to carry out said de-orbit.

Lobbying for regulation mandating a service you provide is a pretty tried and tested business model. Every company IT audit I’ve ever had the pleasure of participating in works the same way.

Re: Steve Wozniak announces private space company to clean up space debris in orbit

#47

Post by tomrod »

JBorrow wrote: post #16
eatmyshorts wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that will change very quickly when we have a collision in space. I imagine SpaceX, for instance, would be pretty interested in cleaning up space junk if two of their LEO satellites collide.

Pretty sure that SpaceX is enough of an environmental disaster already that they won't care.

What do you mean?

Re: Steve Wozniak announces private space company to clean up space debris in orbit

#50

Post by mcdonje »

SonicScrub wrote: post #38
cletus wrote: post #18

So here's a potential business model for this: salvage rights. When ships sink, the owner generally still retains ownership of any property. Sometimes the location of the wreck is known. Sometimes it needs to be found. It can cost a lot of money to find a wreck and recover any property. So salvage rights are a principle of maritime law such that whoever does this is entitled to a reward commensurate with the value of…

This could work, but would limit effectiveness to the orbits that MUST be very specific to work. For most satellites this doesn't matter. If 500 km is clogged, you design your mission to work at 505 km. I could see something like this working for geostationary orbits and sun-synchronous orbits as they require specific altitudes and inclinations, but not for much else.

An incentive appears to exist to wait for collisions every once in a while so that there's more junk at different levels to clean up, and to prove the need for cleaning up junk.
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