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If a brief moratorium (brief in geological time, like 25-50 years) was imposed, would this clear up? Or, does it descend into grey goo in space because at a thr
by ggm 2y ago
If a brief moratorium (brief in geological time, like 25-50 years) was imposed, would this clear up? Or, does it descend into grey goo in space because at a threshold size, the debris can "float" on the exosphere?
Not a suggestion we call a halt on sat launches for 50 years. I'm asking if the remediation of time would work.
- sunjieming 2y agoAccording to NASA: If the debris is <600km the orbit decays within a few years. >800k can take centuries and geostationary objects on the high end (~36000km) can take thousands of years. Most of the debris is in LEO so it could take decades to centuries for the debris to clear out
- ggm 2y agoSo the killer move would be to launch a fleet of sats above the debris field, and then launch self-destructive sats into the persisting space dense enough to make launch and persistence in that field hard. Take command of the high space and make the low ground indefensible.
- anonfornoreason 2y agoJust read a fiction book that had this as the premise in a war between china and the USA. China took the high orbits and blasted the low. Personally I thought it was a a very interesting twist!
- grues-dinner 2y ago[dead]