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Traffic Cops for Space

Posted by michael on from the alternate-side-of-the-orbit-rules-are-in-effect dept.

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.

7 of 295 comments (clear)

  1. The worst thing about space junk by James_Duncan8181 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...is that it is a chain reaction. It is relatively safe up there at the moment, but if we ever get a satelite (say) hit then the debris caused by it's disintergration will cause further problems. I am sure those with even the slightest imagination can see the ongoing process that happens next. You want to go up after that has been becoming exponetially worse for a year or two?

    --
    "To any truly impartial person, it would be obvious that I am right."
  2. Space cr4p by saitoh · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've wondered about this as a problem for a while. Wouldnt it be advantageous to the UN to clean up a majority of the stuff (manmade) in space to prevent further problems such as the speculated involvement in the recent Columbia crash?

    On that note, has anyone else wondered what it would be like to take landfills, package them in rockets, shoot them to the sun and see what happens or am I the only one who has strange dreams like that. ;-p What are the odds something like this becomes viable?

    --
    We don't need an "overrated" so much as we need a "you completely missed the parent's point, dumbass..."
    1. Re:Space cr4p by kfg · · Score: 4, Interesting

      What happens is relatively unspectacular. They vaporize. Quietly. They don't blow up or nothin'.

      The spectacular part is the approximate cost of $25k /kg.

      Do you know how much a landfill weighs?

      So we don't even have to go into the fact that the overall enviromental impact of doing this is greater than a properly managed landfill.

      KFG

  3. Kinetic Energy... by Aesculapius · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It would be extremely difficult to track small pieces of debris. That's why you have to get rid of junk when it's big....before it becomes little pieces.

    Remember, the energy a moving mass has (kinetic energy) is defined as:
    Kinetic Energy = 1/2 * mass * velocity ^ 2

    What that means is that velocity is much more important than mass. To give an example, a small bolt about 1/4" in diameter traveling at 17,500 mph has the same kinetic energy as a bowling ball traveling at 60 mph.

    Yikes!

    --
    -A
  4. Space Debris and the ISS by luzrek · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The ISS has some interesting features to make it space debris resistant. Apparently the sleeping quarters (and hopefully anything else that has humans in it) 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. Of course, this approach is difficult for a launch or re-entry vehicle since the gaurd would have to be deployed after launch and retracted before re-entry.

    --

    Galium Arsenide is the material of the future, and always will be.

  5. Relative velocities? by Theaetetus · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Even a one-centimeter pellet, the width of a fingertip, can destroy a spacecraft traveling at a typical orbital speed of 20,000 miles per hour or more, experts say.

    Small question, having heard for a while about the problems of space junk...
    If that one-centimeter pellet is going 20,000 mph faster than the shuttle, wouldn't it be in a much higher orbit? And if the shuttle is going 20,000 mph faster than the pellet, wouldn't the pellet be in a lower orbit (i.e. on the ground)? And if they're both going at 20,000 mph... what's the problem?

    I know that LEO is getting pretty damn crowded with junk, but what are the real differences in relative speed at that altitude/orbit? Without the 20,000 mph FUD?

    -T

  6. Found It... by black_widow · · Score: 3, Interesting

    http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/07/25/163522 8&mode=thread

    Force Fields And Plasma Shields Get Closer
    Posted by timothy on 03:23 AM July 26th, 2000
    from the use-half-power-for-melting-butter dept.


    http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology /cold_plasma_000724.html