Occupied/Unoccupied Multi-purpose Orbital Vehicle

[Steve Pace]

I feel the free world needs an occupied/unoccupied multi-purpose orbital vehicle in the near future to not only clean up space junk but to be large enough to confiscate orbiting satellites that pose a danger to it. An orbiting gargage truck if you will. What says you? -SP

 

[Bill Walker]

It might be cheaper to zap them into small bits of junk that will re-enter harmlessly. Has anybody ever done any work on high powered space based lasers?

 

[Steve Pace]

Then we'd have a billion pieces up there instead of a million... or not. -SP

 

[Sea Skimmer]

A ground based laser could do the job already if we felt like it. You don't have to burn up or destroy the debris directly, just burn them enough that the acceleration of the vaporized bits blowing off encourages a timely deorbit. NASA has lots of studies on this, but nobody is interested in building one because it would be such a potent anti satellite weapon. Eventually the world's hand will be forced and it will be done. The common name for this concept is 'laser broom'.

 

[Hobbes]

Cleaning up space junk by physically picking it up is going to be a very expensive proposition with all the orbit changes you'll need.

Using a spacecraft to capture someone else's satellite is insanely dangerous: you can do this maybe once, then the enemy knows what's up and will defend its satellites. A thruster blast while the sat is being maneuvered into the cargo bay is going to ruin your day.

 

[Michel Van]

It might be cheaper to zap them into small bits of junk that will re-enter harmlessly. Has anybody ever done any work on high powered space based lasers?

That's would make Orbit more dangerous, like flying true shotgun pellets cloud...
Also a so laser do not exist, otherwise it would be in US Ballistic missle Defense system...


Back to topic
there real need to get the Junk out from orbit, special the small bits.
my idea is that MPOV is equipped with huge inflatable shield, with huge i mean a soccer field size !
it scoop the target debris cloud from orbit and reenters the Atmosphere after short time.
for bigger stuff like use upper stage and death satellite is simple. MPOV give them little kick downwards at lowest point of it's orbit.
rest take gravitation and Atmosphere Earth

 

[mz]

The most economical way by far would be to stop creating more junk.

Deorbit with thrusters, or a terminator tether, or just a bare minimum, vent your tanks so you don't explode into a million little bits when your propellants gasify.

 

[Hobbes]

They're already doing that. Launcher stages are deorbited, satellites are deorbited or put in a graveyard orbit at the end of their lives. Deorbiting from GEO would take a lot of fuel.
The problem occurs when things go wrong. A micrometeorite strike on a satellite (gets worse when it perforates a pressurized tank), a collision between satellites, the occasional ASAT test.