© JAXA/AFP/File | Japan's unmanned cargo spacecraft, "Kounotori" is to blast off from the southern island of Tanegashima around 10:30 pm local time attached to an H-IIB rocket
© JAXA/AFP/File | Japan's unmanned cargo spacecraft, "Kounotori" is to blast off from the southern island of Tanegashima around 10:30 pm local time attached to an H-IIB rocket
Oh goodie, let’s create a cobweb of wires that are miles long in orbit.
Frankly, at the cost per pound of putting stuff up there it would seem someone would begin to realize this stuff has value. It would seem there could be a tidy profit in recycling this stuff.
Even had a hot crew
wait... they want to attach a tether to pieces of junk?
If they are that close to a piece of junk, why not just just give it a push ?
History of tethers in space:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_tether_missions
I looove Space Junk! d;^)
I’d use a tractor beam.
The biggest problem is that a lot of this space junk is traveling at enormous speeds, so is very difficult to catch without destroying the catcher.
One interesting way around this problem is called “the big ball of goo”. A large polymer foam ball that can handle repeated heating and cooling, as well as collisions from high speed junk.
Once in orbit, the satellite inflates a large “balloon” around itself with inert gas, except for its engine and guidance thrusters, then extends tubes that will carry the spray of expansion polymer foam into the balloon.
Once the “big ball of goo” is created, the satellite’s engine and thrusters guide it on an eccentric orbit to cross paths with as much of the space junk as possible.
And once it has collected a large amount of junk, it reenters and burns up in the atmosphere.
For years I have wondered why the USA and Russia did not have one of these orbiting the earth, knocking junk out of orbit and toward the earth where the junk would burn up on entry, or fall into the oceans.
Could this be used for the latter? I think space is an interesting frontier of military and political maneuvering that most people don't see.
I think what a lot of people are missing is that not everything up there is intact satellites. There are thousands of small bits and pieces from earlier collisions, which then can cause more new collisions, and so on. There was a documentary on one of the science channels recently about this. Even a chip of paint traveling at 15,000+ mph can blow right through a spacesuit.
