Build a space recycle center that is located close enough to the sun to burn the space debris w/ high solar power.

It's a good question and I think the person that finds the answer will be very rich indeed. Another question we need to ask is how to prevent more junk. IMHO, it should be mandatory that everything shot into orbit should have the technology on board to make re-entry... or suffer massive consequences.


IRM

Attach a giant snow, no, spaceplow on the shuttle and have it make a few spins around the planet

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solar powered electromagnet. no gravity or air friction. should work?

What about designing Robots that we can send into orbit, there would be

different types. For now lets say big and small. The Big ones would attach

themselves to large pieces of debris and kinda try guide it off orbit and

towards the sun.

Then the small ones would have large net type of attachments that they would

use to gather the small pieces of debriz. Then toss it towards the sun!

This will also help increase sun spot activity!

All of your ideas pale to mine.

I hereby declare a 'WAR ON SPACE JUNK'

*cue george bush*

"WE NEED TO TAKE THE FIGHT TO TERRORIST SPACE JUNK, IT COULD CAUSE MANY TERRORIST DEATHS IF IT WERE TO HIT THE EARTH. OSAMA BARACK O'LADEN HAS LAUNCHED SPACE JUNK INTO THE ORBIT OF THE EARTH TO KILL EVERYONE. WE MUST FIGHT TERRORIST THREATS BOMBING AL-CIADA TERRORISM 9/11 LETS ROLL WITH EVERYTHING WE HAVE TO INSURE THE SURVIVAL OF OUR NATION.
MAY GOD BE WITH US."

This way we can shoot the junk down with interceptor missiles, lasers and whatever else that takes lots of money to build and operate.

A lot of fine answers here so far definitely the answer lies with the sun or solar vaporizing of some sort. Nasa should set up a new program of astronauts..... not scientists or air force guys but a crew of space janitors. That would be a job I would apply for.


Great idea OP! S&F

perhaps with the great minds here at ATS we can come up with a cost effective solution that will work.

[edit on 30-7-2009 by QBSneak000]

What if we just made a big hollow shuttle type craft to go and scoop up the old junk (the opposite of launching a sat) and putting it in the bay and bring the material back to earth where it could be recycled or sold on ebay?

Or don't we have the technology to simply vaporize whatever we feel we don't need anymore... isn't there some secret deathray sat up there we could point around and use to get rid of the old stuff??

Originally posted by halfmanhalfamazing
What about designing Robots that we can send into orbit, there would be

different types. For now lets say big and small. The Big ones would attach

themselves to large pieces of debris and kinda try guide it off orbit and

towards the sun.

Then the small ones would have large net type of attachments that they would

use to gather the small pieces of debriz. Then toss it towards the sun!

This will also help increase sun spot activity!

Your idea is quite good except the part about taking the junk to the sun.

The Sun is FAR FAR away and taking junk in LEO all the way to the Star's corona-sphere is impractical and unrealistic .

The most logical thing to do is build a Large automated Space clearing satellite that functions as a launch platform for hundreds of smaller robots. The larger satellite will detect known debris fields and other stray space trash and employ the smaller robots to gather the debris in one mass by using a strong electromagnetic field and then have that mass burn up in the atmosphere.

Also, most debris are clustered in a particular area in orbit so its not too difficult to clear them if the spare faring nations decide to do so but it would be costly.

Finally, there should be a international law that requires all nations that launch satellites and other space vehicles to zero trash policy in space; where either they bring back everything they send or devise methods to dispose of non functioning equipment freeing the orbit for future use.

Originally posted by revdrdrsunshine
What if we just made a big hollow shuttle type craft to go and scoop up the old junk (the opposite of launching a sat) and putting it in the bay and bring the material back to earth where it could be recycled or sold on ebay??

The problem with this is that not all space junk is moving at the same place or the same speed.

A small wrench could tear a hole right through a space shuttle if impacts the shuttle at a sufficiently high velocity and create more debris in the process. Also, the Shuttle would have to be able to maneuver to different orbits and there is a LOT of space to cover. It would have to be a continuous process that would go on for years and the space shuttle would need to be replaced frequently.

I like the Star Trek and other science fiction shows that use tractor beams to tow these off somehwere. I think we should recycle it in space in some way, maybe even off to the moon. I can't undertand why we haven't yet made a larger space station. I guess those are just too hard to keep in orbit

If some type of passing asteroid sent that junk crashing back to earth, we'd have a lot to worry about.

[edit on 30-7-2009 by aleon1018]

Giant space net.

You don't want to just throw all that stuff away. There might be pens and lighters and stuff, and some of them might still be good.

oops...dbl post. MODS REMOVE PLZ.

[edit on 30-7-2009 by KSPigpen]

Heh wouldnt it be funny if later on we fill the space around earth with so much junk it actually protects us from the sun when it goes a lil crazy (solar flares and crazy sunspots)? then it will be like another layer of protection for our planet... or if global warming is real and this trash adds a layer of protection from the sun haha that would be funny indeed our garbage saves our dirty wasteful planet....

You are all forgetting----there is a LOT of empty space. Think of it. 16000 pieces of junk in a place much larger then the surface of the Earth, oceans included.

Try this: Find just 6 empty soda cans (MUCH larger than 10cm). They could be anywhere, from the top of Mt. Everest, to the bottom of the deepest ocean trench, or even a thousand miles under the crust of the planet.
You have now covered just a tiny percentage of what a space junk explorer would have to cover in an expanding sphere from LEO out to Geosynchronous @ about 26000 miles.

A fairly easy method, compared to others, would be to place 3 platforms @ geosynchronous points equally spaced. Equip them with high solar powered lasers (military has them already) and tracking systems, and just zap the pieces that go by within range.

Swarms of self replicating nanobots that are capable of ad hoc networking with each other to form a swarm intelligence, they will attach to said pieces of junk manoeuvring them to meet others - feeding on any of the materials they can actually use - constantly reporting back to earth the changes of orbits they will be making (to make space travel safer).

Soon the space junk articles will become more like miniature space vehicles drawing power from various means and getting larger and larger as they merge with more junk.

Eventually you could of reduced the amount of individual pieces by a factor of a hundred or more... So now you have a much more managable situation.

Some of the pieces of (now space craft) junk could form very long cords... Or have very long cords attached to them, the thinking being that a weight on the end will be skimming through the very upper part of the atmosphere thus creating drag which will over a short time degrade the orbit and bring the article down to earth... Well into a fiery ball for use to possibly think was a shooting star.

Others could continue to join up autonomously with input from ground, be collected in other meathods, given boosts to?? Hey how about the next time a near miss from an asteriod or something happens?? One we know about in advance! Position our little friends in such a way that they will be picked up!... No wait that won't work, those things don't have a lot of gravity.

Oh well theres me done thinking out loud.

How about - stop painting stuff sent into space. That would get rid of some of the junk being taken out.

I like the magnet idea. You'd probably have to have multiple ones, and they'd need to be able to be moved so that they could be set on the best pathways to pick it up.

I'd suggest that they look into hiring on some oceanographers, or other ocean experts. A boat can float on the top of the water forever but many things can and are pulled down into the currents. Atmosphere works similarly in some ways. Apply what might work in one area to another. How to pull the stuff "floating" on the top or just above the surface of the ocean to the bottom of of the ocean.

Oh yhea has anyone mentioned making an international agreement that everything else that is put up there has an expiry method?

You know some way to de orbit the object (satellites really is what I'm on about here).

Methods could include a reserve of fuel that will be used to bring the thing into an unstable orbit so that it burns up... Or for much higher things enough fuel to completely leave the gravity well (it that even practicable? That would take considerable energy - maybe even the really high up things can deorbit into the atmosphere).

I'm quite a big fan on the cord thing I mentioned in my prev post - it's cheep and it would be about as thin as strong fishing wire but super strong (nano structure carbon fibre type thing - very light) - all you do is put a small mass on the end, a little explosion sends it into the real thin bits of the atmosphere and friction and drag will deorbit the thing over time - it's not quick but when the ball starts rolling it gets faster and faster till the fireball event!

On a side note the same cord principle can actually provide quite a bit of electrical power for the sat - don't ask me how but they have done it and they were pleasently surprised with the results!