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US Lab Developing Technology For Space Traffic Control
coondoggie writes "Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory say they have tested technology that could eventually help them monitor and control space traffic. The driving idea behind the project is to help keep satellites and other spacecraft from colliding with each other or with debris in Low Earth Orbit."
NRL has had this technology since 1957.
why it will be secretly known as SNSA
Space Secret Spy Intelligence Service Interplanetary
SSSISI
we can call it sisi for short...
Just look at what happened to that guy in Gravity. He died in the end, and all because we don't have traffic lights in space yet. We need to get out there and paint some no parking lines too. That way we can fund the project, and make a lot on the side, from space parking fines. I hear that there is not a lot of room outside the Moon in the evenings. Probably best to leave the spaceship at home and use the Transporter.
Seriously, what is it?
I thought calling something a satellite meant it was orbiting.
As long as the system is not controlled by the US I'm quite happy with it. The US has a long road to begin to show they are trustworthy again.
TFA says:
a series of six images over a 60-hour period taken from a ground-based satellite
I wonder what a "ground-based satellite" satellite is. Do they meant a telescope?
They are developing software to get better orbital trajectories. We already HAVE software that manages traffic and orbital collision warnings, but the problem is that our orbital trajectory data is too inaccurate for it to be as helpful as it should be.
"I will trust Google to 'do no evil' until the founders no longer run it." Hello Alphabet.
Kind of like airports do with air traffic controllers...
Man, I wonder how aggressive the Space TSA will be?
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Who's gonna do it? You?
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
I can't bloody believe this wasn't the headline. Sheesh! You guys are slipping.
---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
There are about 5600 active satellites orbiting out there, and far more debris.
... One example: http://www.universetoday.com/2...
And satellites do collide
There always has been the issue of how much orbiting space junk will finally start causing serious problems for space flight and the flight paths of other satellites, I think this issue has been a concern for so long that Carl Sagan was worrying about it (and it'll be 20 years since his death this year).
Priest: "Universe from nothing, no laws of physics, sped up time"+ huge discrepancies. Creationism? No. Big Bang Theory
With all the New tech concerning self guided this and that, is this really even a market? This really seems like spacex and google had a kid, and you wanted to pick a fight with him. Or her. But probably him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1_ZAS0yutY&list=TLHMWMgiKfQFTR7ONGCppuJhWjz8ud2eJz
The US DARPA has been figuring out how to do this kind of analysis on encrypted trajectories:
http://news.discovery.com/space/spy-tech-keeps-satellites-from-bumping-130411.htm
This is like putting up traffic lights before you have more than two cars.
This is all about satellites and debris -- so what about the equivalent of "street sweepers" for the sky? I could imagine that it's easier to target all the working satellites and occasionally just blast the equivalent of a shotgun around them of pellets made from water ice. Destabilize the orbit of all the debris and it will clean up quicker.
Other than a few satellites that might collide -- most of the debris or low sophistication satellites can't move, right? So you are doing traffic control and the best you can do is; "Collision immanent in 3 more orbits". Kind of like our Asteroid protection, or anything to do with serious existential threats like Global Warming.
We'll spend a few trillion more on Ter'rism and Drug War that does nothing but buy flack jackets for people who are inevitably corrupted. We've got the DEA running protection rackets for major drug lords while they bust the competition. We've got contractors selling off all that "just the meta data" which somehow requires a building larger than the Pentagon and they have to invent words larger than Petabyte for storage.
There are no adults looking out for us -- just using that as an excuse. And is crazy that we are going to build a system that will ONLY protect the satellites that can move and has no other purpose than to shift company profits to taxpayer expenses. You think I'll get a discount from AT&T because Uncle Sam saved their cell phone bounce point?
>>"ad space available -- low rates!!!"
Are you serious?
Just limit space travel to Google Self-Driving Spaceships.
WCPGW, YMMV, etc.
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
ICBMs don't work that way. Once you launch, they are standalone. no electronic warfare will work on them as they use inertial guidance.
also physics doesn't work that way. you can't just turn around in space. ICBMs don't achieve orbit, and use solid rocket motors to reach payload delivery.
once above the atmosphere they are little more then big artillery shells packed with a nuclear warhead.
Sure, all it takes is a bunch of warp drive fields that can locally modify the universal gravitational constant, cancel inertia, and redirect those missiles back to their point of origin. Geordi LaForge does it all of the time to help prevent violations of various interstellar treaties or major plot points that are otherwise unsolvable.