Mounting space junk threatens chain reaction

The New York Times ^ | 02/06/2007 | William J. Broad

[Syncro]

Well it does get lonely out there

[steveo]

[xcamel]

Doomed again.

[megatherium]

she was walking all alone
down the street in the alley
her name was sally
she never saw it
when she was hit by space junk
  in new york miami beach
  heavy metal fell in cuba
  angola saudi arabia
  on xmas eve said norad
  a soviet sputnik hit africa
  india venezuela (in texas
    kansas)
  it's falling fast peru too
  it keeps coming
and now i'm mad about space junk
i'm all burned out about space junk
oooh walk & talk about space junk
it smashed my baby's head
and now my sally's dead

[cripplecreek]

I think China understands the risks just fine. The also understand that we don't see our astronauts as expendable and may be leery about putting them in an increasingly dangerous environment. They on the other hand are more willing to take the risk with the lives of their astronauts.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

China could go for the shotgun effect and just send up exploding rockets full of ball bearings in proximity to target satellites. I think their attitude would be denial of space to everyone, including themselves if it came to world conflict.

[nmh]

It doesn't pay to be a litter bug - even in space.

Humans are such slobs ... .

[cripplecreek]

That's my point about China not being as leery about risking the lives of their astronauts. What we see as a denial of space for us may be seen as an opportunity for them.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Our version of the Rings of Saturn.

[Fitzcarraldo]

China could go for the shotgun effect and just send up exploding rockets full of ball bearings in proximity to target satellites. I think their attitude would be denial of space to everyone, including themselves if it came to world conflict.

Blind spy satellites and GPS in low earth orbit, much mischief they can do.

[Fitzcarraldo]

That's my point about China not being as leery about risking the lives of their astronauts. What we see as a denial of space for us may be seen as an opportunity for them.

Exactly.

[CFC__VRWC]

Is there anything at all that's not going to wipe every human on the face of the earth out of existence?

[muawiyah]

We'll simply have to arm our satellites.

Ultimately any country that wants to get into the business of launching satellites, traveling to outerspace, or even sending some low altitude ICBMs to their enemies is going to have to learn how to dispose of debris in the way, or simply give it up.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Is there anything at all that's not going to wipe every human on the face of the earth out of existence?

This would not affect the surface of the Earth, just damage and destroy satellites. At this point, geosynchronous satellites are safe.

[Fitzcarraldo]

We'll simply have to arm our satellites.

And armor them.

[LetsRok]

We need to send the "Quark" to clean up the mess.

[Izzy Dunne]

Since most (all?) of the junk is metallic, how about an orbiting supermagnet?

[LetsRok]

United Galactic Sanitation Patrol ship to the rescue.

[Chode]

simply outstanding...