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Transforming Orbit Into A Wasteland
I found an article (Yes, the article is now 404) in the CNN Space section this morning, talking about a recent report at a UN Conference on space. The author of the reporter alleges that programs like Star Wars and the like would basically turn LEO ? into a "wasteland" for satellites for decades or even centuries. And the wonderful part is that NASA's Off ice for Orbital Debris will close in October, due to budget cuts, despite 10s of thousands of already existing debris. Yah. Have fun with space tourism!Update: 04/23 19:14 GMT by H : It appears that the CNN article was pulled - I can't seem to find it - but Space.com had another report on the subject. And Space.com has also the updated story that CNN was linking to - and the update may be why it was pulled, because it appears that the Office for Space Debris may have some salvation yet.
a swarm of orbiting bolts around your planet to protect it against an alien invasion.
..and on your left you can thousands of chunks of space debris hurtling towards us. The smaller chunks burst into beautiful firework displays as they hit the windows of our touring craft.. the larger chunks? Well, lets just say thats why we had you sign all those forms before you took this tour.
air and light and time and space
you allready managed to /. yourself ;)
...using lunar power to create neutrino oscillations to destroy the junk... see, /. has all the answers...
The reason the office was closed is that their previous attempts to clean up had failed.
Their plan involved using nanoships to blast the debris away. Unfortunately whenever they shot them, they broke into two smaller pieces. NASA claims that difficult controls and the offices inability to use hyperspace to evade debris were two of the main reasons for failure.
Che: "Couldn't you just launch a bunch of huge super powerful magnets into orbit to suck up all that debris? I mean, wouldn't a magnet have a really powerful effect on all those little metal bits in a vacuum?"
Che's roommate: "dude, are you posting on slashdot stoned again?"