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To Get Rid of Space Junk, Shoot It Down With Lasers

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  • 25-04-2015 10:23pm
    #1
    _Tombstone_
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,006 ✭✭✭


    On your street, littering is an annoyance. But in space, it could be deadly. Bits of junk from past missions, dead satellites and old rocket boosters now amount to some 30,000 tons of debris in orbit, ranging from lost nuts and bolts to entire defunct satellites. That's a problem for astronauts and working spacecraft, because even a BB-sized piece of material moving at orbital speeds can pack a punch. According to NASA, small pieces of debris can move as fast as 17,500 miles per hour—nearly eight times the speed of a bullet fired from a military rifle.

    Proposals to get rid of space junk include nets in space and solar sails. The problem with those concepts is the need to match orbits with the debris—maneuvering to do that requires lots of fuel or, in the case of solar sails, a lot of pirouettes in space. So some scientists and engineers are proposing something simpler: shoot the stuff down.
    They're planning (one of many plans) on sending up a fibre optic laser to the ISS that they'll use to pew pew bits of debris which will vaporize a bit of it which should act like a thruster burn to slow down the debris and send it into the atmosphere to burn up.

    If it works they'll send up a dedicated Sat to do the same job.

    http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/get-rid-space-junk-shoot-it-down-lasers-180955097/?no-ist


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    #2
    Rubecula
    Registered Users Posts: 8,551 ✭✭✭Rubecula


    ooer sounds like a plan to have weapons in space via the backdoor.


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    #3
    _Tombstone_
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,006 ✭✭✭_Tombstone_


    Another new one outta china, they want to send up a Rocket with a "debris Engine".

    As it flys along it'll Catch with Nets/gobble up bits of junk and store them in it's engine where they'll be ground up by Abrasive balls into a powder resulting in the separation of positively and negatively charged ions. The positively charged ions would then be charged with electricity generating thrust to propel the rocket. It'll still need an alternative Energy Source though.

    junk-engine.png


    And some Swiss Guys want to send up a Sat to grab on to some other decommisioned 10-inch Swiss satellite using a net and bring it back to Earth in Operation Cleanspace one...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pclqbhRKkdM



    http://www.dogonews.com/2016/1/28/the-quest-to-find-a-solution-to-clean-space-junk-continues


    A bit mental but pretty cool if they could actually pull off finding/catching a piece in particular!


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