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A lot of people ask what can be done. There is a lot. A huge part of why the ISS has to move because the uncertainty of the objects is to high. If we can get m
by nickik 5y ago
A lot of people ask what can be done. There is a lot.
A huge part of why the ISS has to move because the uncertainty of the objects is to high. If we can get much more accurate measurements many of these issues become far less important.
Currently its really just the us military who has radar for this. What we should have is multiple nations each having multiple radars.
Beyond that, the next step is laser based ground station that can both get far more accurate measurements and potentially move the items as well. ESA is working on a demonstration of such a system. Again, it would be best if multiple nations had these.
From these two tools we can create a real accurate shared global database with very accurate measure. This alone should massively reduce the amount of near collision events.
Then beyond that we can start to launch missions to actually capture debris from higher orbits and throw make it burn up. ESA has also planned a demonstration mission for that.
To really do that right we really want to have a reusable space transporter that can be refueled from some sort of cheap space fuel truck that can ride along on SpaceX flights.
We can figure this out. Some DoD people have already talked about putting a price on individual objects so a commercial garbage removal market can start to happen. And with SpaceX Starship launch prices should get down to prices where these things can be done much cheaper.
If you speak German this is a great resources: https://raumzeit-podcast.de/2020/11/17/rz092-weltraumschrott-bekaempfung/ https://raumzeit-podcast.de/2020/11/17/rz092-weltraumschrott...
- Someone 5y ago“and potentially move the items as well. ESA is working on a demonstration of such a system. Again, it would be best if multiple nations had these.” I fear the military would love to have that capability.
- nickik 5y agoWell, its not like you can pin-ball that stuff around. And if the sat is active it can easily counteract anything you can do with a laser. So I don't think there is much military value moving a sat incredibly slowly overtime. Its mostly useful to move dead objects.
- Someone 5y agoI was hinting at nudging dead objects to ‘accidentally’ collide with enemy satellites. Even if they can move away, that’s using valuable fuel.
- airhead969 5y agoSpace users are trashier than my immature neighbors having a pool party. I don't get why space should be treated any differently than land in the middle of nowhere. Tragedy of the Commons is what happens when people just toss their Big Mac wrappers and expended second stages out the window.
- nickik 5y agoIts an international issue. And after the Outer space treaty getting more space legislation threw any sort of international organization has turned out to be impossible. The nations are afraid of adding more regulation for sat de-orbiting. Because its easy to add regulation requiring de-orbiting is in place, but if your sat is dead, you don't actually pay for removing it. The regulation that is needed is that if you leave something behind you have to de-orbit it but since there is no commercial service for this or a known cost, all the nations are afraid to do it, as the sat providers would just leave the country. Hopefully these things will be demonstrate and there will be an actual price and then you can potentially insure for it.
- orbital-decay 5y agoUS military is the only entity that provides data to the public for free; but they only provide TLEs which aren't sufficient for close passes. TLEs are processed (they are just like JPEGs in cameras, in a sense), what you need for reliable prediction is raw measurements (which they don't publish). There are also commercial networks used by satellite operators for precise orbit determination of objects of particular interest. (i.e. about to collide). Satellite laser ranging is also nothing new, it's used for GNSS and other satellites requiring determination accuracy. But current instruments mostly work with retroreflectors on the satellites, and the coverage is a problem since the orbit can only be predicted for a limited amount of time.