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Yeah of course, de-orbiting or grave yarding a single piece of debris is doable for a few million dollars right now, but we are talking about a large fraction o
by theteapot 4y ago
Yeah of course, de-orbiting or grave yarding a single piece of debris is doable for a few million dollars right now, but we are talking about a large fraction of 900K+ pieces. That's the really hard part.
- DocTomoe 4y agoMuch like surface trash cleanup, the perfect is the enemy of the good. The goal is "less junk on the streets", not necessarily "absolutely squeaky-clean streets". First get rid of that rusty fridge that someone dumped in the woods before we deal with all the cigarette butts. Let's focus on the more problematic, larger objects first, that are at risk of creating much more debris if hit.
- rich_sasha 4y agoWhat's the minimum size at which debris is dangerous? Since everything is moving at orbital speeds, and generally at an angle to each other, i understood even small fragments move at a few km/sec relative to what they hit, so don't need to be particularly large.
- gattilorenz 4y agoTrue, but I imagine that, the smaller the object, the smaller the chance that it will be hit/it will hit something, and a smaller amount of fragments that the hit can generate.