BBC: Space refuse collection!

[wonderboy]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8590103.stm


This seems like a cracking idea. They really do need to clean up up there. space junk must pose some danger to astronauts during spacewalks and the less of it there is the better. I know that the space around earth is (for the majority) clear, it would take a lot more than 5500 tonnes of junk to cause any immediate danger. However, i do agree its better to start early than let it build up. Usually itll take someone to die before anything is done about it. Don't let it happen in this instance and take these ideas seriously nasa.

[Chris Peterson]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8590103.stm

This seems like a cracking idea.

It's a good start, making sure that we don't add more debris. Of course, it doesn't solve the problem with what's already up there- which might be enough to cascade into an impenetrable cloud of debris around the Earth, making space activities all but impossible for thousands of years.

[bystander]

A mission to clear dangerous debris from space
University of Surrey - 2010 March 25

Nanosatellite sets sail to tackle space junk
New Scientist: Space: 2010 March 26

Nanosatellite To Clear Dangerous Debris From Space
Science Daily News: 2010 March 27

A mission to clear dangerous debris from space
PhysOrg: Space & Earth: 2010 March 28

[bystander]

Space Junk Tracker to Orbit Earth
Discovery News - 14 June 2010

SBSS will work with ground-based radars and telescopes to track orbital debris, hopefully preventing future collisions. (Credit: NASA)

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A new spacecraft soon will be joining the armada of probes, rocket bodies and other objects circling Earth. Rather than passing on communications signals, tracking hurricanes or staring at stars, however, this satellite will serve as an orbital eye for tracking space debris.

The Space Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) is an Air Force effort to get better information about the 20,000 or so objects whizzing around the planet. Initially planned as a technology pathfinder, the project will be an operational system. The launch of the first satellite is planned for July.

From a vantage point nearly 400 miles above the planet, SBSS is designed to supplement ground-based radars and telescopes that currently keep track of objects orbiting Earth. The space-based system, however, will not be subject to weather, lighting and other restrictions faced by ground systems.

SBSS is even synchronized with Earth's rotation so that it passes over a given point at roughly the same time each day.
...
Information collected by SBSS will be used to determine objects' orbital paths and calculate the chances of collisions several days in advance. The project started in 2004 -- well before a defunct Russian spacecraft crashed into one of Iridium's communications satellites last year, or the January 2007 Chinese anti-satellite weapons test, which littered space with more than 2,300 pieces of debris.
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The heart of SBSS is a 30-centimeter (11.8-inch) visible-light telescope that can be quickly and nimbly pointed around the sky to track satellites, as well as spacecraft launches and orbital maneuvers.
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The telescope can also be quickly swiveled between targets without having to spend time or fuel repositioning the entire spacecraft, added Boeing spokesman Bob Packard.

The satellite, which is scheduled for launch July 8 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, is expected to operate for five years.

[bystander]

Climate change is leaving us with extra space junk
New Scientist | 25 June 2010

Rising sea levels, vanishing glaciers and earlier blooming of flowers are among the well-documented effects of climate change. An increase in space junk can now be added to that list.

The upper layers of the atmosphere have a braking effect on defunct satellites and spent rockets, eventually causing them to drop out of orbit and burn up. Arrun Saunders and Hugh Lewis, at the University of Southampton in the UK, studied the orbits of 30 satellites over the past 40 years, and recorded a gradual increase in the time they remain in orbit. They attribute this to the cooling and reduced density of the upper atmosphere caused by increasing carbon dioxide levels.

The researchers calculate that the atmosphere is reducing in density by 5 per cent every decade at an altitude of 300 kilometres. "The lower molecular braking means debris can remain in orbit up to 25 per cent longer," says Lewis.

This raises the risk of collisions with satellites and makes it more hazardous to launch spacecraft. Space agencies may need to double the amount of debris they plan to remove from orbit, the researchers say. They presented their work at a conference in Boulder, Colorado, last week.

[bystander]

The Looming Space Junk Crisis: It’s Time to Take Out the Trash
Wired Magazine | 24 May 2010

On clear winter nights, when the trees are bare, Donald Kessler likes to set up a small telescope on the back deck of his house in Asheville, North Carolina, and zoom in on the stars shining over the Blue Ridge Mountains. It’s not the most advanced home observatory, but the retired NASA scientist treasures his Celestron telescope, which was made in 1978. That also happens to be the year Kessler published the paper that made his reputation in aerospace circles. Assigned to the Environmental Effects Project Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the astrophysicist had gotten interested in the junk that humans were abandoning in the wild black yonder—everything from nuts and tools to defunct satellites and rocket stages the size of school buses.

In that seminal paper, “Collision Frequency of Artificial Satellites: The Creation of a Debris Belt,” Kessler painted a nightmare scenario: Spent satellites and other space trash would accumulate until crashes became inevitable. Colliding objects would shatter into countless equally dangerous fragments, setting off a chain reaction of additional crashes. “The result would be an exponential increase in the number of objects with time,” he wrote, “creating a belt of debris around the Earth.”

At age 38, Kessler had found his calling. Not that his bosses had encouraged him to look into the issue—”they didn’t like what I was finding,” he recalls. But after the paper came out, NASA set up the Orbital Debris Program Office to study the problem and put Kessler in charge. He spent the rest of his career tracking cosmic crap and forming alliances with counterparts in other nations in an effort to slow its proliferation. His description of a runaway cascade of collisions—which he predicted would happen in 30 to 40 years—became known as the Kessler syndrome. ...

Special thanks to Mark Swain

[wonderboy]

HAHA, i know its not funny. But its only humans who could create man made refuse rings similar to saturn around its own planet. We really are an undeniable bunch of idiots when it comes to pollution.

Paul.

[bystander]

New Satellite for Monitoring Space Debris To Launch
Universe Today | 05 July 2010

USAF Space Based Surveillance System (SBSS) (Boeing)

The U.S. Air Force will launch the first-ever satellite dedicated solely to tracking the positions of other satellites and the thousands of pieces of space debris in Earth orbit. The $500 million Space-Based Space Surveillance satellite, scheduled for a July 8 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, in California, will continuously monitor the "traffic" around the Earth, providing an unobstructed view day or night. Currently, the ground-based radar and optical telescopes used to track satellites and space junk can only be used on clear nights, and not all the observatories are powerful enough to detect objects in high or geosynchronous orbits.
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It is hoped the new SBSS satellite will increase the capabilities to help avoid future collisions.

Sources: Boeing, Secure World Foundation, AP