With both your examples, the space being filled with water and with bullets (density) is still many, many orders of magnitude larger than these objects in LEO space. I think the problem is still the scale of the situation.
When it rains, there are trillions of raindrops at any one time within a cubed meter of space. They probably account for up to 1% of the volume of space. With the bullet example, you're really only dealing with 2 dimensions so the relative density if even higher than with the raindrops.
I was simply trying to point out that any amount of garbage we throw up into orbit is infinitesimal compared to the astronomical volume of LEO space. Even with my overliberal 5m x 5m objects (which is probably huge compared to 99.99% of said objects), I would think the probability of seeing one, much less hitting one, is extremely, extremely small (order of 10^-14).
If I am wrong, please enlighten me. I'm certainly not an expert on this subject.
The radius of the earth is 6.371e+6 m. The volume is therefore (4/3)*pi*R^3=1.0832e+021 m^3.
If we calculate the volume of a sphere whose radius matches the upper boundary of the LEO and subtract the volume of a sphere whose radius matches the lower boundary of the LEO, we get:
((4/3)*pi*(6.371E6+5E5)^3)-((4/3)*pi*(6.371E6+1. 7E 5)^3)=1.8653e+020 m^3
...which gives us the volume of the LEO. Now, how much of this is currently occupied by debris?
Let's assume there's 50,000 pieces of debris, and each one averages the volume of a 5m x 5m x5m cube. This gives a total debris volume of 6250000 m^3. Guess what? That amounts to exactly 3.3507e-014 of the total volume. That means we'd have to put up 15 trillion times more debris to full up HALF of the LEO. Nice try, guys, but I'm not going to start panicking yet.
This is a nice device being that it's portable, but there's been another device called the Brujo by netDrives (www.netdrives.com) that does the same thing. It's been out for a long time but it's a rack-mounted-type device (not portable). It sells for the same about as Pine's device ($299). Imagine that.
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With both your examples, the space being filled with water and with bullets (density) is still many, many orders of magnitude larger than these objects in LEO space. I think the problem is still the scale of the situation.
When it rains, there are trillions of raindrops at any one time within a cubed meter of space. They probably account for up to 1% of the volume of space. With the bullet example, you're really only dealing with 2 dimensions so the relative density if even higher than with the raindrops.
I was simply trying to point out that any amount of garbage we throw up into orbit is infinitesimal compared to the astronomical volume of LEO space. Even with my overliberal 5m x 5m objects (which is probably huge compared to 99.99% of said objects), I would think the probability of seeing one, much less hitting one, is extremely, extremely small (order of 10^-14).
If I am wrong, please enlighten me. I'm certainly not an expert on this subject.
Let's see...
. 7E 5)^3)=1.8653e+020 m^3
The radius of the earth is 6.371e+6 m. The volume is therefore (4/3)*pi*R^3=1.0832e+021 m^3.
If we calculate the volume of a sphere whose radius matches the upper boundary of the LEO and subtract the volume of a sphere whose radius matches the lower boundary of the LEO, we get:
((4/3)*pi*(6.371E6+5E5)^3)-((4/3)*pi*(6.371E6+1
...which gives us the volume of the LEO. Now, how much of this is currently occupied by debris?
Let's assume there's 50,000 pieces of debris, and each one averages the volume of a 5m x 5m x5m cube. This gives a total debris volume of 6250000 m^3. Guess what? That amounts to exactly 3.3507e-014 of the total volume. That means we'd have to put up 15 trillion times more debris to full up HALF of the LEO. Nice try, guys, but I'm not going to start panicking yet.
If you don't have Quicktime Pro, you can get the 640 version of Apple's trailor here.
-Jason
NEC Auditorium, Gates Computer Science Building B03
:-)
Gates Computer Science Building?! NEC auditorium?! Wow, talk about sellouts...
Two other Slashdot stories have been posted on this. One was mentioned,
http://slashdot.org/articles/ 99/10/04/1124236_F.shtml
But I don't think the other one was...
http://slashdot.org/articles/99/ 12/01/133232.shtml
-Jason
: A package with a concealed taser, aimed at his testicles?
I vote for this one!
-Jason
This is a nice device being that it's portable, but there's been another device called the Brujo by netDrives (www.netdrives.com) that does the same thing. It's been out for a long time but it's a rack-mounted-type device (not portable). It sells for the same about as Pine's device ($299). Imagine that.