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Low Earth Orbit Junk Yard Nearly Full

Posted by Zonk on from the get-a-vacuum-up-there dept.

vlado4 writes "The New York Times has up an article on the amount of space junk in Earth Orbit. According to NASA officials, the amount of stuff we've put into LEO is at critical levels. Additionally they have great graphics of the nearly 1000 new pieces resulting from testing the new Chinese anti-satellite weapon, as well as the damage to Hubble's solar array. The litter is now so bad that, even if space-faring nations refrained from further interference, collisions would continue to create more clutter just above our atmosphere. Space debris appear to be a difficult problem to deal with and may hinder future space exploration."

3 of 443 comments (clear)

  1. Re:But seriously... by Blappo · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Right off the top of my head I can't think of a feasible way of beginning to clean this up.

    Gravity. What do I win?

    --
    Why are so many posts with factual errors modded up?
  2. Collect it, yes. Throw it away, no. by perfessor+multigeek · · Score: 0, Redundant
    I agree that we should have robots out there collecting all this stuff. It's a huge volume but the math of volume passed through relative to time and fuel is a textbook problem and very addressable. As to what to do with what is collected, as I've said before, we should be breaking this stuff down to basic compounds and reusing it.

    Mass costs ungawdly amounts to get up there and small devices using ion engines powered by sunlight could do the job of getting it back to usable locations. Even accounting for the problems of needing to match velocities, this is very doable. And seeing as how we've already seen cases where serious damage has been done to space craft (such as the shuttle windscreen that got pitted none too long back), this work is long overdue.

    It never ceases to amaze me how chowderheaded the folks in charge are to not have started doing this long since.

    -Rustin

    --
    Data is the lever, rigor the fulcrum, brains the force that drives it all.
  3. Just plain stupidity on the authors part. by insomniac8400 · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Look at how much of the surface of our planet is covered by our own trash? Do you really think a thousand+ satellites is going to fill up the entire low earth orbit? You have to love their pictures of earth with debris being little dots that cover it so much. Those dots would have to be debris larger than whole cities to even come close to being that big.