4 ms·

Space Junk Problem Is More Threatening Than Ever, Report Warns

32 points by sasvari 15y ago

sosuke 15y ago
It's only slightly related and not a likely solution since finding space debris is an issue but there was an Anime I recently watched called Planetes that followed a team of space debris collectors that I would recommend. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes Collecting space debris became a large issue in the story because of civilian space travel expanding and collisions that lead to catastrophe. They bring up the Kessler syndrome more than once as well http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome which describes a moment at which there would be too much debris in space to launch anything else for a long time.
- bobds 15y ago
  I've watched a couple episodes of that, was quite entertaining. I remember the Greek title on a Japanese series caught my eye.
- hypersoar 15y ago
  I just started watching this the other day. I'm really enjoying it.
seanos 15y ago
It's not mentioned in the linked article but a significant proportion of the space junk in orbit can be traced to China using a missile to destroy a satellite back in 2007. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2007/01/china_blows_up_/ http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2007/01/china_blows_u...
- mturmon 15y ago
  Here's another link to that event, that also discusses a collision between two satellites: http://www.space.com/8334-junk-space.html http://www.space.com/8334-junk-space.html The claim is that the China missile test and this collision are responsible for 60% of the number of objects in orbit. Even though space is vast, the number of useful orbits is limited. For example, the A-train (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-train_(satellite_constellation) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-train_(satellite_constellatio... ) is a parade of remote sensing satellites in sun-synchronous orbits (as they look down, it is always within a few minutes of noon). So this makes inadvertent collisions more likely. Slightly related, here's a close asteroid passby that happened last summer: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news172.html http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news172.html
  - mattw 15y ago
    Slight nitpick - the article said that the collision and missile test increased the amount of debris by 60%, not that they were responsible for 60% of debris in orbit. Still a lot, but not more than half.
    - mturmon 15y ago
      I said "claims" because, for reasons too tedious to list, I don't think they do know or can know a very exact percentage (even to +/- 10%). And note, they're talking about "number of items" (not "amount of debris" as you say -- that would imply mass, a different thing). But if it's anywhere near half of the "number of items", then these two crashes alone are a highly significant source of junk. I did not know that, and that seemed worth a link.
- Tichy 15y ago
  Sounds as if space war is getting too expensive, there is a cheap way to make it infeasible.
j_baker 15y ago
Next question: How do we take care of space junk? It seems like it would be a very expensive problem to fix?
- 16BitTons 15y ago
  If you are realy interested, look into NASA's Orbital Debris program. They have a must-read quarterly newsletter: http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/ http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/
  - lanstein 15y ago
    must-read space debris quarterly newsletter : scientists :: the Masters telecast contains 56 minutes of golf action per hour : golfers (I happen to be in the latter camp)
- binarymax 15y ago
  That's the problem...there is no viable solution at the moment. I can't even think of where to start, aside from something ridiculous like 'Big Magnets in space!'
  - lukeschlather 15y ago
    The laser-based suggestions sound pretty feasible. A laser based on the moon might even be plausible. The key is that you don't necessarily need a lot of energy to bump a piece of debris enough to knock it out of orbit. http://www.spacefuture.com/archive/orions_laser_hunting_space_debris.shtml http://www.spacefuture.com/archive/orions_laser_hunting_spac...
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- sasvari 15y ago
  there might be no patent remedy for this, but there are already several projects in the space pipeline to target at least some aspects of it [0]: The ConeXpress - Orbital Life Extension Vehicle (CX-OLEV) presents the operators of geostationary communications satellites ("comsats") with a pioneering opportunity to extend the revenue-earning life of their space assets by up to 10 years. the most interesting feature to avoid extra space debris with the OLEV would be: removal from the geostationary orbit to a disposal orbit. of course this would not clean up the space junk, but at least some more might be prevented. [0] http://telecom.esa.int/telecom/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=17870 http://telecom.esa.int/telecom/www/object/index.cfm?fobjecti...
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
jonathlee 15y ago
The bigger problem by far is the treaty the _prohibits_ companies from one nation from even touching the space junk of another nation. I know that there are several different schemes/ideas floating around (space tethers for one) trying to get funding to de-orbit or salvage space junk but they always get hung up on the political problem. This is definitely _not_ a technical issue.
- artmageddon 15y ago
  I'm ignorant on the issue - which treaty are you referring to?
- 16BitTons 15y ago
  >This is definitely _not_ a technical issue. Are there any ideas with a TRL>napkin?
ThaddeusQuay2 15y ago
Andy Griffith, with a little help from Isaac Asimov, has already solved this problem. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvage_1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvage_1
dismalist 15y ago
The long term solution is to cut NASA's budget more.

32 points by sasvari 15y ago

It's only slightly related and not a likely solution since finding space debris is an issue but there was an Anime I recently watched called Planetes that followed a team of space debris collectors that I would recommend. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes Collecting space debris became a large issue in the story because of civilian space travel expanding and collisions that lead to catastrophe. They bring up the Kessler syndrome more than once as well http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome which describes a moment at which there would be too much debris in space to launch anything else for a long time.

bobds 15y ago
I've watched a couple episodes of that, was quite entertaining. I remember the Greek title on a Japanese series caught my eye.
hypersoar 15y ago
I just started watching this the other day. I'm really enjoying it.

seanos 15y ago

It's not mentioned in the linked article but a significant proportion of the space junk in orbit can be traced to China using a missile to destroy a satellite back in 2007. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2007/01/china_blows_up_/ http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2007/01/china_blows_u...

mturmon 15y ago
Here's another link to that event, that also discusses a collision between two satellites: http://www.space.com/8334-junk-space.html http://www.space.com/8334-junk-space.html The claim is that the China missile test and this collision are responsible for 60% of the number of objects in orbit. Even though space is vast, the number of useful orbits is limited. For example, the A-train (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-train_(satellite_constellation) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-train_(satellite_constellatio... ) is a parade of remote sensing satellites in sun-synchronous orbits (as they look down, it is always within a few minutes of noon). So this makes inadvertent collisions more likely. Slightly related, here's a close asteroid passby that happened last summer: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news172.html http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news172.html
- mattw 15y ago
  Slight nitpick - the article said that the collision and missile test increased the amount of debris by 60%, not that they were responsible for 60% of debris in orbit. Still a lot, but not more than half.
  - mturmon 15y ago
    I said "claims" because, for reasons too tedious to list, I don't think they do know or can know a very exact percentage (even to +/- 10%). And note, they're talking about "number of items" (not "amount of debris" as you say -- that would imply mass, a different thing). But if it's anywhere near half of the "number of items", then these two crashes alone are a highly significant source of junk. I did not know that, and that seemed worth a link.
Tichy 15y ago
Sounds as if space war is getting too expensive, there is a cheap way to make it infeasible.

j_baker 15y ago

Next question: How do we take care of space junk? It seems like it would be a very expensive problem to fix?

16BitTons 15y ago
If you are realy interested, look into NASA's Orbital Debris program. They have a must-read quarterly newsletter: http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/ http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/
- lanstein 15y ago
  must-read space debris quarterly newsletter : scientists :: the Masters telecast contains 56 minutes of golf action per hour : golfers (I happen to be in the latter camp)
binarymax 15y ago
That's the problem...there is no viable solution at the moment. I can't even think of where to start, aside from something ridiculous like 'Big Magnets in space!'
- lukeschlather 15y ago
  The laser-based suggestions sound pretty feasible. A laser based on the moon might even be plausible. The key is that you don't necessarily need a lot of energy to bump a piece of debris enough to knock it out of orbit. http://www.spacefuture.com/archive/orions_laser_hunting_space_debris.shtml http://www.spacefuture.com/archive/orions_laser_hunting_spac...
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
sasvari 15y ago
there might be no patent remedy for this, but there are already several projects in the space pipeline to target at least some aspects of it [0]: The ConeXpress - Orbital Life Extension Vehicle (CX-OLEV) presents the operators of geostationary communications satellites ("comsats") with a pioneering opportunity to extend the revenue-earning life of their space assets by up to 10 years. the most interesting feature to avoid extra space debris with the OLEV would be: removal from the geostationary orbit to a disposal orbit. of course this would not clean up the space junk, but at least some more might be prevented. [0] http://telecom.esa.int/telecom/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=17870 http://telecom.esa.int/telecom/www/object/index.cfm?fobjecti...

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

jonathlee 15y ago

The bigger problem by far is the treaty the _prohibits_ companies from one nation from even touching the space junk of another nation. I know that there are several different schemes/ideas floating around (space tethers for one) trying to get funding to de-orbit or salvage space junk but they always get hung up on the political problem. This is definitely _not_ a technical issue.

artmageddon 15y ago
I'm ignorant on the issue - which treaty are you referring to?
16BitTons 15y ago
>This is definitely _not_ a technical issue. Are there any ideas with a TRL>napkin?

ThaddeusQuay2 15y ago

Andy Griffith, with a little help from Isaac Asimov, has already solved this problem. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvage_1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvage_1

dismalist 15y ago

The long term solution is to cut NASA's budget more.