Posted on 01/30/2019 7:46:18 PM PST by BenLurkin
Given that roughly 100 space launches are conducted annually, and that the lower stages of multi-stage rockets can be regarded as independent celestial bodies, and that such independent celestial bodies can also break up into multiple smaller bodies - I'm not surprised.
After all, some lower stages of rockets have entered into stable orbits around the Sun.
Regards,
Plenty of aluminum, beryllium, copper and magnesium. Maybe not enough to make the trip though.
Just so long as there are NO plastic straws orbitin’ out da’ah.
The “causers” of the trash have to pay foe ir’s removal.
At least it’s not a straw.
The orbit also may be affected by solar wind and storms or electrical charges from the stream of particles that are trailing the Earth as it orbits the Sun, (similar to a comets tail - only not visible to us down here).
Seems clear to me- the new virtue signaling cause of the century - greater than saving puny old earth from the ravages of Man. Spacegreenies must save the solar system from senseless bits of garbage just in case there’s such a thing as cosmic turtles that might see such garbage as food.
Space trash bag? Probably named “Nancy” or “Sheila” or “Maxine” or “Elizabeth”. All qualify as space trash, space junk, or spaced out.
That’s the most plausible theory I think. Ever see a garbage bag stuck in the vacuum pocket behind a garbage truck going down the road? It will make big loops from and back to the truck.
At first they thought it was a London phone booth...
if they zoom in close, they’ll find it’s just a wrapper from a loaf of Wonder bread.
There are two primary methods for removing orbital junk. You can either pick it up, or deorbit it. Either way, you're going to be expending a fair amount of energy doing the job using traditional means. I would seriously doubt much of it is worth picking up, unless it's a complete satellite or something. Given that a lot of it is metallic, and therefor likely conductive, you might be able to push things about with electrical fields. That might enable you to deorbit smaller stuff from a distance.
It's still gonna be a huge and losing battle, since new junk gets put out there with most every launch. Fortunately, most of that will just fall back to earth eventually anyway, but for stuff that actually manages to find a stable orbit, it will be a hazard until something is done with it.
I wonder how low the costs to get to orbit will have to get before some attempt to clean up the junkiest parts of LEO are feasable.
About time it showed up. This planet needs to be vaporized, stat.
Indeed.
I have an idea it is more likely to be “Freeze-Dried” though.
Brrrrrrrrrrrr
Swamp Gas, nothing to see here please move along.
Maybe we should zap it from orbit.
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