Scientists Race to Prevent 'Catastrophic Disaster' in Space

Scientists Race to Prevent 'Catastrophic Disaster' in Space

www.foxnews.com

"We really don't know the scale of the problem — we just know that we've already done serious damage to a zone of space that's essential to our security."

"This clean-up will cost tens of billions of dollars," he says. "It's going to require a whole new space program to pull off. But we don't have a choice. This is just a cost-benefit analysis. If we don't clean this mess up in the next 20 years, we're going to lose our access to space."

(visit the link for the full news article)

I don't really understand why this was not a thought in the heads of the people that put "spacecraft" into our orbit until now.

Clean-up is a way of life... everything made, has to be disposed of at some point.

What I do find interesting is the ideas they are looking at to rid this "zone of space" of debris, such as...

"One concept that's gotten attention is the "space broom," a ground-based laser that will use quick pulses to singe orbital debris, changing each piece's trajectory so that it deorbits faster. The idea has considerable merit, and considerable problems — how to hit each piece, for one."

Then there is the "collection by collision"... "The idea is simple — coat a spaceship in something sticky and put it into orbit. Think of it as a giant lint roller — debris will naturally collide with the craft, but instead of bouncing off or tearing through it, the junk will simply adhere. The added mass will lower the ship until it deorbits on its own."

The part that disheartens me is at the end of the article they talk about the wealth that can be amassed by those who are able to clean up this area. Wouldn't the realization that we just "cleaned up our own mess" be enough?

www.foxnews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Yeah i know..its a no brainer really. This is pure slopyness. Apperantly, theve fogotten jsut like mom used to say..clean up after yourself! HEY! Remember a year or 2 ago, they let tons of water out into space, just too see what would happen? WOnder how thier gunna clean that up lol. Only idea that comes to mind, is form the movie spaceballs..the badguy ship that trasnformed into a giant maid witha vaccum

Apparently amongst other things, even beer cans are orbiting the Earth.

Half the time when a NASA launch is delayed, it's due to the impeding trajectories of junk, satellites and other items in Low-Earth Orbit which obstruct the flight path.

reply to post by The Godfather of Conspira


I was going to say surely there is a catalogue of what exactly is sent into space, and the exact amount of debris which resides there.

But, I guess this list could not be feasible. If something as as trivial as a "beer can" can be floating out there... there is no telling the amount of other useless junk as well. When one piece of debris strike another at that speed, poof, you have 2 or 3 more pieces.

Its as daunting a task as cleaning our oceans of plastic material. There is no feasible and realistic way of doing it.

Hi, debris fans & all.

Hey ! The sticky ship is a GOOD idea !! B-)

One I have always considered is : How much $$$$$$$$ would it cost
to send the largest debris towards the sun, to RECYCLE them ??? B-)

Blue skies.

Originally posted by C-JEAN
Hi, debris fans & all.

Hey ! The sticky ship is a GOOD idea !! B-)

One I have always considered is : How much $$$$$$$$ would it cost
to send the largest debris towards the sun, to RECYCLE them ??? B-)

Blue skies.

I think before you can even start tallying the cost of sending "the largest debris towards the sun", you would still have to come up with an effective way of collecting said debris.

This is a truly daunting task that I am sure has many scientists scratching their heads in frustration.

This is just another example of "go ahead and do it.... it will be generations from now till' we have to worry about the effects".

reply to post by TwiTcHomatic


By JOVE, I think I've GOT it! You know those hairy tennis balls that are called "scumballs" for cleaning pools and spas? YAH! GIANT scumballs, orbiting the Earth at a liesurely 18,000 mph, jes' bouncing around, collecting mass........ try to make the re-entry burn just shallow enough, so it comes in cool as possible.

Then, it's recycle time. FINally, I'd be able to get decent satellite TV.

I really wonder WTF goes on up there that so much debris could be left behind. Are the shuttles and space station kind of like cruise ships on the ocean where they just flush out the ^@#$ in the middle of the sea?

"Hey Jim?"
"Yeah, Bob, what's up?"
"I'm getting ready to purge the refuse bin. Were you finished with your salisbury steak packet?"
"Yeah, toss it."
...Bob watches as a half-eaten steak and a side of mashed potatoes floats away from the station.

On a more serious note. I've seen images of what the trashosphere looks like from space, but I wonder how it would appear from here on the ground. Or perhaps what percentage of the sky is affected by that stuff. Does it have any impact on our ability to observe space from the ground or do other astronomy-related activities?

My lord we are filthy savages aren't we?

Why any alien would want to hang with us is beyond me.

reply to post by PowerSlave


I think you mean filthy "polluting" savages. I have been thinking all day and researching all these ideas that they are trying to come up with to fix the problem. You really would need a space agency only focused on the clean-up.

It is really just too big of a scope to imagine.

On a silly note.. maybe the "aliens" are just galactic garbage men, trying to figure out how to clean up the mess as well.

A conspiracy angle might go something like this...

Our secret alien overlords want to discourage us from entering space so they scare us about the trash that's up there. Gotta keep the livestock in the pen, even if it's with invisible fences.