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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

#151

Post by quelltext »

mLuby wrote: post #139
quelltext wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is completely off topic but what accent is the narrator speaking? He pronounces "research" as "resorch"/"resauch", "greater" as "greator" etc. and in other regards it seems to flip between American to slightly British English. Never heard this accent before.

It's a speech impediment; he has trouble saying R's (and has improved as he's narrated more and more videos). Isaac's earlier videos would show Elmer Fudd with the message "Having problems understanding me? Turn on CC." Example: https://youtu.be/gOu3zGfP-TQ?t=40 Source: I've watched lots of his videos and highly recommend them—mind expanding ideas!

Thanks a lot for the context. I have to say I didn't really have a hard time understanding him. I didn't even consider the possibility that it was a speech impediment.

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

#152

Post by toast0 »

andjd wrote: post #55

Does anyone else see Wozniak as the headliner and shrug? He has no track-record of successful companies since Apple. Why is this news and why did it hit the front page of HN?

With all due respect to Woz, having him headline your company is an admission of a scam. He's let his name get attached to so much garbage.

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

#154

Post by bagels »

shantara wrote: post #23
SonicScrub wrote: post #14

I'm very skeptical of the technical challenges associated with this problem (business model and financing aside). The amount of delta-v required to perform maneuvers to repeatedly "dock" with different pieces of space junk, and then again to de-orbit is very high. You MIGHT be able to de-orbit on the order of magnitude of ~10 pieces of low-earth orbit debris per mission. Maybe. If you're really good. And low-earth or…

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…

There are on the order of... 10s of thousands of intentional satellites.

There are millions of pieces of debris.

It's useful for preventing future debris from dead satellites perhaps, but doesn't address the large number of existing objects which are currently the problem.

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

#155

Post by bagels »

spywaregorilla wrote: post #72
SonicScrub wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would work great for defunct satellites, but does nothing to solve the bigger space-junk danger: random bits and pieces of things from stage separations and previous collisions that are difficult to track. Definitely a step in the right direction, but it won't solve the largest threat.

They shouldn't be difficult to track by an object in space with a laser I would think? edit: curious why the downvotes? Would a device in space with a LIDAR type of device not be very well suited to tracking small objects that are difficult to identify with cameras from earth?

It's difficult and expensive.

Ground based radar is the best way.

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

#156

Post by modeless »

jimbob21 wrote: post #147
modeless wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The engine is not the problem. It's the fuel. Large orbit changes take a lot. Lowering orbit is not easier than raising orbit, it takes the same delta-v. IMO what should happen is we should ban putting satellites in high orbits. Satellites in low orbit decay naturally within a few years due to atmospheric drag. Satellites in high orbit will stay there essentially forever. More importantly, any collision in high orbit…

> Lowering orbit is not easier than raising orbit, it takes the same delta-v. Why is this? From a layman's perspective it seems like gravity would be a massive form of help here and therefore lowering orbit should require much less fuel.

Orbit is unintuitive. Objects in orbit are not just floating up there. They are constantly falling under the influence of gravity, just as objects here on Earth. The reason they don't hit the Earth when they fall is that they are traveling sideways at 25,000+ km/h. This is so fast that they miss hitting the Earth, and simply fall forever.

When a rocket launches to orbit, it only goes up a little bit, just to get out of the atmosphere, and then spends most of its time/fuel on going sideways to reach orbital velocity. If you watch a rocket launch you can see that the rocket starts to tip over and go sideways soon after leaving the pad. This is also why launching from a plane doesn't help you very much, because going up is the easy part of getting to orbit. A plane can't help you with the hard part of getting to 25,000 km/h sideways.

For an object in orbit to stop missing the Earth as it falls, it must slow down that sideways velocity, and gravity doesn't help with that.

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

#157

Post by perlgeek »

SonicScrub wrote: post #14

I'm very skeptical of the technical challenges associated with this problem (business model and financing aside). The amount of delta-v required to perform maneuvers to repeatedly "dock" with different pieces of space junk, and then again to de-orbit is very high. You MIGHT be able to de-orbit on the order of magnitude of ~10 pieces of low-earth orbit debris per mission. Maybe. If you're really good. And low-earth or…

Going after bigger pieces in higher orbit might not bring much of an immediate benefit, but it can reduce the amount of damage if such an object is hit and shattered into many pieces (Kessler effect comes to mind).

So it might still be very worthwhile in the long term.

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

#158

Post by me_me_me »

quelltext wrote: post #127
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 is completely off topic but what accent is the narrator speaking? He pronounces "research" as "resorch"/"resauch", "greater" as "greator" etc. and in other regards it seems to flip between American to slightly British English. Never heard this accent before.

I was going to ask the same question, its so unusual but never heard it before

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

#159

Post by zohch »

andjd wrote: post #55

Does anyone else see Wozniak as the headliner and shrug? He has no track-record of successful companies since Apple. Why is this news and why did it hit the front page of HN?

> Does anyone else see Wozniak as the headliner and shrug?

I look at it and cringe. Would be much more credible without his name on it.

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

#160

Post by zohch »

h2odragon wrote: post #76
andjd wrote: post #55

Does anyone else see Wozniak as the headliner and shrug? He has no track-record of successful companies since Apple. Why is this news and why did it hit the front page of HN?

Every "space company" has to have a celebrity name attached to it, right? Even if they're not really a celebrity and no one remembers why they were famous. I'm cynical about the actual need for the proposed service, but I wouldn't begrudge Woz the opportunity to rent his name out for joy or cash.

> Every "space company" has to have a celebrity name attached to it, right?

Do they? I only know of two with celebrity names attached, and at least four than do not.

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