The Space Junk Agency we need

There’s already an anime of that; forgot the name.

I think ultimately the only cost effective solution will be huge solar farms with lasers the can impart thrust by burning the top surfaces of satellites as them come into range. It would be a slow process but it wouldn’t involve much reaction mass or energy input once you had the platforms set up. Slow constant burns should eventually push junk downwards over a long enough time frame. Anything super high risk that needs to be moved in a hurry would require a more hands on, less energy efficient mechanism.
 
Josh_TN said:
There’s already an anime of that; forgot the name.

I think ultimately the only cost effective solution will be huge solar farms with lasers the can impart thrust by burning the top surfaces of satellites as them come into range. It would be a slow process but it wouldn’t involve much reaction mass or energy input once you had the platforms set up. Slow constant burns should eventually push junk downwards over a long enough time frame. Anything super high risk that needs to be moved in a hurry would require a more hands on, less energy efficient mechanism.
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Are you saying that conventional explosives would not work well in space?
Would they provide too great a range of size of chunks of debris?
... running the risk that a few remaining bits of debris would be big enough to penetrate the atmosphere and hit the earth's surface intact?
What about clamping on retro-rockets to de-orbit space junk?
 
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TomcatViP said:
@riggerrob : you'd certainly like this movie then ;)
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I found the "Space Sweepers" trailers on Netflix and they look interesting.

Thanks for the suggestion. I enjoyed "Space Sweepers." Parts may have been a bit corny, but overall it was a rollicking piece of space opera.
 
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SpaceX has long emphasized the ability of its Starlink satellites to autonomously maneuver to avoid conjunctions. The company said that, between December 2021 and May 2022, Starlink satellites performed nearly 7,000 collision avoidance maneuvers, of which 1,700 were linked to Russian ASAT debris.
While SpaceX may be able to manage those conjunctions with its technology, it may be more difficult for other operators of satellite constellations. “If you didn’t have that automated system taking care of a spike like this, it could be really challenging to work it though,” he said.
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spacenews.com

Starlink satellites encounter Russian ASAT debris squalls - SpaceNews

Debris from a Russian ASAT test that caused “squalls” of close approaches to satellites earlier this year is now affecting Starlink satellites.
spacenews.com spacenews.com
 
Biden-Harris administration on the right path to create an US Space Junk agency:

We believe the new space age needs new rules. Because here on the ground, the regulatory frameworks we rely on to shape space policy were largely built for another era,” FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, said in a press release accompanying the vote.

It is important to remember that while Rosenworcel joined Harris at the meeting in Oakland today, the FCC by law is an independent entity that does not answer to the White House.

As a first step, the FCC issued a “notice of inquiry” that “will examine the opportunities and challenges of space missions like satellite refueling, inspecting and repairing in-orbit spacecraft, capturing and removing debris, and transforming materials through manufacturing while in space.”
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Link originally by @Forest Green in the US Space Force thread:

breakingdefense.com

White House crafting rules framework for emerging space activities - Breaking Defense

The White House announcement comes after the FCC indicated it was wading into the murky regulatory waters of space-space services like satellite repair and refueling.
breakingdefense.com breakingdefense.com
 
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France just last week became the ninth nation to publicly join the moratorium — following Canada, New Zealand, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Switzerland, and Australia.
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breakingdefense.com

US call for halting kinetic anti-satellite tests gets boost from UN vote - Breaking Defense

France just last week became the ninth nation to publicly join the moratorium — following Canada, New Zealand, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Switzerland, and Australia.
breakingdefense.com breakingdefense.com
 
TransAstra and Think Orbital propose launching capture bags in TransAstra Worker Bee spacecraft. After moving into the orbit of the targeted debris, the Worker Bee would transport the debris to ThinkOrbital’s ThinkPlatform.

The proposed ThinkPlatform would be about 37 meters in diameter with a volume of 4,000 cubic meters. ThinkOrbital plans to equip the ThinkPlatform with tools for inspecting, repairing and recycling objects.
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spacenews.com

TransAstra claims NASA contract for debris capture bag

Space logistics startup TransAstra won a NASA contract to manufacture a bag to capture orbital debris.
spacenews.com spacenews.com
 
Nearly 10% of all large sulfuric acid particles, the main component of aerosols formed in the stratosphere, contained anthropogenic space metal hitchhikers. “That’s a big number, considering we didn’t know it would be abundant at all,” Abou-Ghanem said.

According to a collaborative report by McKinsey & Company and the World Economic Forum, the number of satellites orbiting Earth could triple in the next decade. At that rate, 50% of sulfuric acid particles could be contaminated, Abou-Ghanem said.
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eos.org

Spacecraft Are Sprinkling the Stratosphere with Metal - Eos

Metals from spacecraft reentry don’t simply vaporize and vanish. Scientists found them in the stratosphere.
eos.org eos.org
 
phys.org

Researchers release open-source space debris model

MIT's Astrodynamics, Space Robotics, and Controls Laboratory (ARCLab) announced the public beta release of the MIT Orbital Capacity Assessment Tool (MOCAT) during the 2023 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Space Forum Workshop on Dec. 14. MOCAT enables users to model...
phys.org
 
— UPDATE 21 FEBRUARY, 17:45 CET —
This is likely the final update prior to the reentry and break up of ERS-2. Consider following @esaoperations on X (formerly Twitter) for any further info.

ESA’s Space Debris Office currently predicts that the reentry of ESA’s ERS-2 satellite will take place at:

17:05 UTC (18:05 CET) on 21 February 2024

The uncertainty in this prediction is now just +/- 0.55 hours.
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ERS-2 reentry – live updates – Rocket Science

News from the edge of gravity
blogs.esa.int blogs.esa.int
 
Someone has already beaten me to posting a link to Planetes/Debris Section...

Josh_TN said:
I think the loss of a high priority satellite or two would be enough once costs come down, but certainly a hit to the ISS would press the need home. All other human activity in space is sufficiently fleeting in significantly small platforms that the probability seem extremely low compared to the threat to satellites.
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We've already had hits to the ISS!

Just no fatalities yet.



riggerrob said:
Good idea.
Even if we get orbiting trash trucks before some one dies ... the incentive might be high-value (think nuclear reactor) or very sensitive, next generation recce instruments. CIA will gladly pay a few million dollars for the latest Chinese spy camera. Bonus points if the orbiting trash truck can capture a Chinese spy satellite without the Chinese realizing that it has been "salvaged."
But the biggest hassle is matching trajectory and speed with the space junk you are trying to capture.
And may I suggest that final capture is best done with nets held out on arms away from the hull of the orbiting trash truck? Worst case scenario, during a poorly-timed capture, you burst a hole in a capture net, but damage misses the hull. This might be better done by small, net-slinging, un-manned drones matching orbit with space junk, netting it, then flying it back to the mother of all orbiting trash trucks. Trash trucks then sort various space junk into different nets until they have a large enough cargo to re-cycle (in orbit), de-orbit for burn-up on re-entry, or slow descent to an earth-based salvage yard. I suspect that the last option will be reserved for the most "sensitive" bit of space junk (e.g. the latest Chinese spy camera).
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I'm not sure it'd be possible to salvage a satellite without the owner knowing it. But I'm sure Spook types would be all over trying to pull it off.


riggerrob said:
I can foresee a rollicking (fictional) space-opera starring a multi-national crew flying a rattle-trap orbiting trash truck while conducting "salvage" operations of dubious legality and selling space junk to the highest bidder, whether that bidder be an orbiting salvage yard feeding raw materials to an orbiting shipyard building the next generation of freighters to Mars or an earth-bound spy agency trying to get their hand son the latest Chinese spy camera. Add in conflicting corporate agendas and you can create plenty of tension between characters.
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As mentioned, that anime is Planetes. It's GOOD and highly accurate about how physics works. Even goes into the horrors of a Kessler Cascade!
 

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