Mission To Remove Space Debris About To Launch.

Lets hope this works.

Surrey University has devised a system to remove debris from space ( space junk ).

How this will hopefully work is demonstrated in the video below.



Space debris is now becoming a major concern, as it has the capacity to actually knock vital satellites out of orbit.

www.bbc.co.uk...

a reply to: alldaylong

awesome.

a reply to: alldaylong

But there's no money in cleaning up the mess. Where's the profit motive. Communism doesn't work!

originally posted by: alldaylong
Lets hope this works.

Surrey University has devised a system to remove debris from space ( space junk ).

How this will hopefully work is demonstrated in the video below.

Space debris is now becoming a major concern, as it has the capacity to actually knock vital satellites out of orbit.

www.bbc.co.uk...

Ummm...those were cute little toys...why not use focused beams of sunlight...mirrors...lenses...etc.. to oblate portions of a target to change the targets trajectory...cause de-orbit then fly on to the next target...?

An non-disposable on station platform that is tasked for decades...not singular usage...

Think about ion driven craft orbiting the gravity well...swatting all those parts out of orbit with a photon flyswatter...


That makes better sense to me...




YouSir

a reply to: alldaylong

I'm not impressed with this system at all. Seems rather complicated and designed for very small stuff. Does the main unit then become space junk once it sets out its various "catchers?" How do you harpoon some small object that is freely floating in space. And then what do you do with it?

How about a simpler solution rather that this complicated contraption? AImagine a gigantic "sponge" thingie that goes with the flow almost but at a slightly higher velocity. It overtakes and impacts at a low velocity the various stuff which then is absorbed into the depth of our lightweight sponge material. Being of low mass itself, it would take little boosting power to maneuver. It would be launched as a liquid or compressed foam that would be caused to expand once in the stream of debris. There, shaped like a mushroom, it would simply slowly ram into the debris without any fancy tracking or recovery equipment required. It could remain in orbit for decades, silently doing its simple job.

Really cool! This is a problem that needs to be addressed, or else eventually Low Earth Orbit will become unusable.

a reply to: alldaylong


I was born in Surrey, so yay! Proud of my birth place to care about the environment.

a reply to: dfnj2015

it's about mitigating future costs to life and missions

the savings are huge

a reply to: Aliensun

Does the main unit then become space junk once it sets out its various "catchers?"

If you watch the video, the main unit releases a " drag sail " which slows the orbit and the main unit descends and burns up on re-entry.

originally posted by: dfnj2015
a reply to: alldaylong

But there's no money in cleaning up the mess. Where's the profit motive. Communism doesn't work!

You kidding me? salvaging that debris could yield a potential bonanza of materials for strip and repurpose.

The risk of creating even more debris bits is demonstrated by various capture devices. Nets and harpoons, must make firm contact with the space 'debris' , its at that point that splinters could be created or protruding appendages may break off, thus adding to the orbiting debris field.

If a harpoon misses slightly it could fragment bits of solar cell or antennae, rupture fuel tanks, whatever, creating a cloud of expanding debris where before there was only one object.

The 'cleaner' satellite itself will have limited propellant, can close approach just so many targets before it runs out, making each mission expensive to launch just to capture a few objects.

If something goes wrong with the de-orbiting phase, reentry could pose hazards to people on the ground. The more missions they send, the more the risk increases.

Lots of bugs to work out, not much room for error. Love the 'harpoon practice range' anime. Shooting at practice targets isn't the real thing. The harpoon has to have an expanding head and penetrate the satellite without creating any extra splinters from impact. I thought they discarded that idea long ago...

a reply to: YouSir

I think they need to think a little further outside the box. They need to avoid de-orbiting the refuse, and instead collect it and build something out of it, something useful. That way, we get a new gadget made of old ones, without having to relaunch the materials, and without having to mine more resources to put up there in the first place.

It will probably blow up in orbit and create a debris cloud.
A little Murphy's law for ya.

How bout an orbiting magnetic "roomba" to suck up the stuff. After all, I bet 90% of the debris is metal or contains ferrous metal. When it gets full, de-orbit, empty, rinse & repeat.

There's that giant vacuum from space balls we can get out of the attic.

a reply to: dfnj2015

How naughty do you have to be to get stuck with this chore?

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: YouSir

I think they need to think a little further outside the box. They need to avoid de-orbiting the refuse, and instead collect it and build something out of it, something useful. That way, we get a new gadget made of old ones, without having to relaunch the materials, and without having to mine more resources to put up there in the first place.

Ummm...true...why not grind it all down while it's up there and use the powder in 3-D printers...print a solar sail...or pieces for that next gen mars orbiter...

Think about it...solar sail races...tacking about between LaGrange points...
I wonder if a solar sail would allow for sailing...into...the wind like I do on my sail boat...I can get about 35degrees into the wind with my sloop...




YouSir

a reply to: alldaylong

Is it weird that I cried during that video???

The music... so powerful!!

LOL

a reply to: YouSir

Well, I looked into this a little bit...

There are over 1,900 tonnes of man made junk up there. The vast majority of that weight, is carried by 1,500 or so objects of over 100kg each in weight.

The ISS however, only weighs 450 tonnes.

So there is a bit over three times as much material up there, just wasted and doing nothing, as there is in use on the ISS. So if we could somehow collect, recycle and reconstitute that material into a useful form, we could be looking at having the largest piece of man made real estate up there as a result. We could, perhaps, use it as the beginnings of an orbital shipyard.

Its also worth mentioning that some of the disused satellites up there have RTG cores, which, although spent, may still have viable radioisotopic material in them, which, if correctly processed, could be turned into a new type of battery, involving sandwiching spent nuclear fuel elements, between layers of dimpled silicon. I remember reading of this method a few years back, and it seemed to suggest that as particles are emitted from the spent fuel, they pass through the silicon and their interaction with it, somehow balances out into an electric charge. If that technology could be manufactured by automated systems on board a recovery craft, then those cores could be harvested to power systems on board the newly minted station.

Essentially, the idea here, would be to launch one spacecraft, which would collect material and resources from these defunct satellites and scrap parts, and rebuild them into new configurations, as it makes its way around the orbit of Earth. So for one launch, we get a correction of a massive problem, caused by inefficient launch systems used previously, and we also get a brand new piece of real estate.

Its just a thought, and I have voiced it here before. I still think its worth thinking about, even though its a total moonshot, and complicated as hell to actually make work.

a reply to: TrueBrit

True thats actually a great idea, we could be building not removing !

get them sticking it all together like the mixed up box of lego everyone has