Space Station Turning Into a Trash Heap

quintin3265 writes "Apparently, the International Space Station is becoming overloaded with junk, stored among other places in a now unused airlock. Since shuttles aren't visiting the station, the station's occupants can't return broken machines to Earth. Furthermore, the only way they can dispose of trash and human waste is by loading these items in Russian cargo ships that burn up in the atmosphere."

Comments

A Great Rotovator(tm) Counterweight!

[Baldrson]

Hans Moravec's Rotovator(tm) picks up hypersonic (near mach 12) payloads with a tether and slings them to orbit.

Current proposals for implementation of the Moravec's design rely on a hypersonic air-breather of advanced aerodynamic design like the Boeing DF-9 (that exists only on paper).

Is there anything likely come along in the near future that could take paylods to 100km and mach 12?

Clue: Someone just went 100km this morning.

A key to the Rotovator(tm) is getting hub mass in place to keep it out of the atmosphere while it picks up mass -- but that mass can be any old space junk for the hub where it counts the most for high strength materials like carbon nanotubes.

Can you think of anything really massive that is likely to end up as space junk soon?

Clue: This /. article concerns such a hunk of junk.

Nice thing about Rotovators(tm) is that they can be built with much lower capitaliztion over a much shorter period of time using existing commercial materials. All you need is a bunch of mass orbiting near earth, some quite-doable tethers, and sufficient manuverability and speed in the atmospheric leg to hook up with the tether as it reaches the nadir.