With no garbage pickups in two years, space station gets cluttered

AP via Casa Grande Valley Newspapers, Inc. ^ | September 30, 2004 | Marcia Dunn

[snopercod]

Thanks, AlGore for turning the Space Shuttle into a garbage truck.

[snopercod]

What a revoltin' development this is.

More "good" news. Next Shuttle launch has slipped to N.E.T. July, probably later.

[SilentServiceCPOWife]

Do space garbage men put the cans back up on the curb, or do they leave them rolling around in the street like mine do?

[Ptarmigan]

Why don't they just throw all the trash out into space?

[BradyLS]

Is there anything they could tie down or afix to the craft's exterior?

[snopercod]

Remember that all that "trash" is traveling at 17,500MPH. It could break some other spacecraft.

[Ptarmigan]

Good point. What was I thinking? Speaking of that, I remember that a small paintchip hit Space Shuttle Challenger and did some damage to it. They should of thought of making rockets on the ISS, so they can put the trash in it and aim it at the Sun.

[FReepaholic]

... The discarded antenna covers already have fallen harmlessly out of orbit, for instance, and the pump panel should plunge through the atmosphere in flames by year's end. ...

They can't just toss them "out the door" or they'll just orbit along with the station.

They must've imparted some energy to them to put them into a lower orbit and eventually into the atmosphere....but how did they do that?

Or else the station gets "boosted" periodically so anything not attached would get left behind.

[RadioAstronomer]

Is there anything they could tie down or afix to the craft's exterior?

It is not designed for that. Also, space walks are hard and dangerous enough without worrying about sharp and bulky garbage.

[freedumb2003]

Too bad they can't do some kind of Star Wars laser practice

[RadioAstronomer]

They should of thought of making rockets on the ISS, so they can put the trash in it and aim it at the Sun.

The station is in a low orbit. The delta-V required to do that would be very difficult and expensive.

[Ptarmigan]

Why can't Russia just send Soyuz to pick up the trash, since US is not launching space shuttles after Columbia.

[Names Ash Housewares]

Remember Adam Quark? Space garbage man! http://www.snowcrest.net/fox/quark/ "Before DS9 there was the Adam Quark who was commander of the United Galaxies Sanitation Patrol Cruiser. In Space no one collects your garbage! Except for Adam and his crew."

[Malsua]

and the cargo ships are cut loose and incinerated in the atmosphere

Are they filling the cargo ships up with garbage before they are cut loose?

[snopercod]

Good one!

[snopercod]

Yes, I think so.

[eno_]

so they can put the trash in it and aim it at the Sun.

It's a long way from low Earth orbit to escape volcity. All they need to do is slow the rubbish down enough that it eventually falls into the atmosphere and burns up. Don't worry about it hitting anything on the ground. We are constantly pelted with asteroids, so even if a wrench or something survived reentry, it is unlikely to hit anything important.

[RadioAstronomer]

Why can't Russia just send Soyuz to pick up the trash, since US is not launching space shuttles after Columbia.

First, launches are expensive and second, the Soyuz is pretty small. The ISS needs the Shuttle badly.

[tubebender]

I know this is not funny but I had a flash back to the inhabitants on Gilligan's Island...

[Ptarmigan]

If we had private companies in the space travel, it would be much cheaper.