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It's possible that even a 'failed' device by their mission standards is still capable of sufficient manoeuvring to either push itself into a stable salvageable

by shabble 14y ago

It's possible that even a 'failed' device by their mission standards is still capable of sufficient manoeuvring to either push itself into a stable salvageable orbit, or do a controlled burn-up reentry. I can think of a whole bunch of things that could go wrong which leave them unable to perform their primary objective, but still serve 'light duties' doing something else. In addition, I don't know how well we have the current debris identified and tracked, but to my entirely uneducated mind, a bunch of cheap mini-telescope sats might be quite useful in actually figuring out what we have to deal with. And, should they happen to be completely successful in their long term goals, I like to think that $20E12 in materials just waiting to be collected from a lagrange point or whatever would provide some serious impetus for solving the debris issue. :)

DanBC 14y ago
> I don't know how well we have the current debris identified and tracked NASA has an interesting website, with facts about how much stuff is up there, and images of what damage can occur. (http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/ http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/) > More than 21,000 orbital debris larger than 10 cm are known to exist. The estimated population of particles between 1 and 10 cm in diameter is approximately 500,000. The number of particles smaller than 1 cm exceeds 100 million.
- nmridul 14y ago
  Time for a space mining (/scavenging) company. Mine (/scavenge) the broken space ships and bring the costly metals back home. Should be less risky, good returns venture for sure..
  - ttt_ 14y ago
    This anime/manga might interest you then: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes
  - swombat 14y ago
    Sounds more valuable to keep those costly materials up there, but bunch them together so they can be used as raw materials to build those automated factories?

by shabble 14y ago

DanBC 14y ago

> I don't know how well we have the current debris identified and tracked NASA has an interesting website, with facts about how much stuff is up there, and images of what damage can occur. (http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/ http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/) > More than 21,000 orbital debris larger than 10 cm are known to exist. The estimated population of particles between 1 and 10 cm in diameter is approximately 500,000. The number of particles smaller than 1 cm exceeds 100 million.

nmridul 14y ago
Time for a space mining (/scavenging) company. Mine (/scavenge) the broken space ships and bring the costly metals back home. Should be less risky, good returns venture for sure..
- ttt_ 14y ago
  This anime/manga might interest you then: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes
- swombat 14y ago
  Sounds more valuable to keep those costly materials up there, but bunch them together so they can be used as raw materials to build those automated factories?