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Traffic Cops for Space
The NY Times has a good story about a push for international action, via the UN, on the growing problem of space debris. Includes a pretty picture of a space shuttle window that got nailed by a fleck of paint.
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saw that same photo years ago in elementary school
We must focus on our Energy shields and Deflector beams. C'mon, NASA. Get it together.
I think the editors are trying to push the Tom's Hardware dupe off the front page :)
Vote for global prefs bug
Uhhh.... I think the UN might be a little busy at the moment. Please try again after the war...
Please remember this has to be the kind of dump truck that can withstand being hit by screw sized projectiles at maybe 1500 miles an hour. You want to carry it up? ;)
"To any truly impartial person, it would be obvious that I am right."
Given that Libya chairs the UN human rights committee, and Iraq is scheduled to chair the disarmament committee later this year, is Elbonia going to chair the space debris committee?
You think Earth's got problems? Imagine the space debris problem in the Endor system. I mean, hell, the entire death star exploded - and that thing was friggin' HUGE! I mean, there you are, heading towards a nice vacation on Endor's forest moon, planning on partying down with the Ewoks, when all of a sudden - WHAM! little Palpatine bits are impacting against your YT1300 cockpit windows. I wouldn't want to be the clean-up crews working the Alderaan, Yavin, or Endor star systems. You'd be there for as long as it takes a Sarlaac to digest a barge full of Hutts...
Don't be ridiculous. Like slashdot would ever dupe articles; I mean, there are a bunch of people working there, they post only a handful of stories a day, and it takes what, a few seconds to check whether an article is a dupe? Do you really think they wouldn't take those 10 seconds to check?
I think you owe the editors an apology for even insinuating such a thing.
It's more useful to launch prison inmates into orbit.
;)
Maybe we can launch them towards Mars so they can colonize it. Hey, it worked for Australia, didn't it? It's a cool place!
Before long, those bastards will have a union and a quota.
Wait until the end the month, when it will be tickets for speeding over a school zone or for improperly parking the orbiter when you KNOW you were between the lines and there was enough time left on the meter.
The link in the article is broken. Either the newspaper is routing webpage requests to some login page for reporters, or the actual link to the article is wrong. I can tell this because a newspaper wouldn't have it's readers log in
You're new here, aren't you?
I pledge allegiance to the flag...
of the Corporate States of America...
If that were true then Battlestar Gallactica wouldn't make any sense at all.
KFG
REUTERS - Feb 1, 2023:
UN Secretary General Clinton said in a speech today that while the loss of the privately-launched and operated "Armadillo" space plane last weekend is regrettable, but that the United States is obliged to "give the collections process time to work", and called for the UN Space Council to pass a resolution calling for the complete cleanup of space debris by 2033.
BACKGROUND: The UN Space Council was formed following the loss of Shuttle Columbia 20 years ago. After passing resolutions calling for permanent funding form the UN, it promptly passed a series of resolutions concerning the issue of space debris in low earth orbit.
Following the loss of Shuttle Discovery to space debris in 2005, the UN Space Council passed Resolution 1042, calling for a programme that would investigate the feasibility of LEO debris collection.
In response to the stranding of the crews of the ISS and Shuttle Atlantis due to damage a surprise recurrence of the Leonids in 2006, the UN Space Council passed Resolution 1334, lauding the process of investigation, and calling for additional time to study the problem.
Rescue shuttle Endeavor was launched one month later, but failed to make it into orbit after the main engine was punctured by space debris. All three vehicles were loss. This catastrophe prompted Resolution 1349, demanding an extension of the deadline for submission of the debris collection feasibility study, and an expansion of the study to include weapons of meteoric destruction below the tropopause.
Secretary-General Clinton hailed this week's decision by the UN Space Council to proceed on another resolution, and in his speech, reminded the world that despite the Armadillo tragedy, it was due to the diligence of the UN Space Debris Collections Process that there had been no losses of manned spacecraft since the loss of the last Shuttle in 2006.
A furious Tom Paine, former NASA administrator during the Apollo years, was ejected as he attempted to disrupt the proceedings from the visitors' gallery. Rumors that the words "You sick bastards, the reason NASA hasn't lost a manned mission since the loss of the last shuttle in 2006 is because it hasn't launched anything since then! For fuck's sake, it hasn't even frickin' built a new manned vehicle based on post-1982 technology!" are completely false.
UN Secretary-General Clinton kept his composure despite the disruption in the gallery, and concluded his address to the UN Space Council without further incident.
His call for a new UN Space Council resolution to "let the debris collectors assess the situation" has received great support, particularly from representatives of Arianespace.
Soon, through a process similar to that which created Saturn's rings, Earth could have its own rings. And being made of mostly metal, plastic and paint, our rings would be especially shiny and colorful.
Apparently the sleeping quarters ... has several layers of high strength fabric separated by quite a bit of empty volume in order to soak up the kinetic energy of space debris as it will inevitably hit the station.
Ahhh yes, the good old "bed sheet deflector shield"... I've used those before in the past. Kept those high-velocity monsters from my closet at bay quite well!
who's been playing paintball at the ISS?
"She's a West Texas girl, just like me" - G.W Bush Iraqis
"How could a group of utterly clueless politicians do anything useful about space junk?"
One politician can absorb quite a lot of kinetic energy...