Space Junk in Earth Orbit

[Susano]

For those dealing in new future and hard SF games.

 

 

Between the launch of Sputnik on 4 October 1957 and 1 January 2008, approximately 4600 launches have placed some 6000 satellites into orbit; about 400 are now travelling beyond Earth on interplanetary trajectories, but of the remaining 5600 only about 800 satellites are operational - roughly 45 percent of these are both in LEO and GEO. Space debris comprise the ever-increasing amount of inactive space hardware in orbit around the Earth as well as fragments of spacecraft that have broken up, exploded or otherwise become abandoned. About 50 percent of all trackable objects are due to in-orbit explosion events (about 200) or collision events (less than 10).

 

Officials from the space shuttle program have said the shuttle regularly takes hits from space debris, and over 80 windows had to be replaced over the years. The ISS occasionally has to take evasive maneuvers to avoid collisions with space junk. And of course, this debris is not just sitting stationary: in orbit, relative velocities can be quite large, ranging in the tens of thousands of kilometers per hour.

 

More: http://www.universetoday.com/2008/04/11/space-debris-illustrated-the-problem-in-pictures/

[Cancer]

Re: Space Junk in Earth Orbit

 

See? It's as hard to find a parking place in space as it is down here.

[Maur]

Re: Space Junk in Earth Orbit

 

roughly 45 percent of these are both in LEO and GEO.

 

I didn't realize you could be in both LEO and GEO at the same time... heheh. Sounds like a writer that needs to take remedial english.

 

roughly 45 percent of these are in LEO or GEO.

[Inu]

Re: Space Junk in Earth Orbit

 

Somebody call the Toy Box?

[Cancer]

Re: Space Junk in Earth Orbit

 

I didn't realize you could be in both LEO and GEO at the same time... heheh. Sounds like a writer that needs to take remedial english.

There's a fair amount of trash that's in transfer orbits, too, the long ellipses that go between (e.g.) LEO and geosynchronous. Technically such things are in neither LEO or GEO, but the trash is a hazard at both altitudes.

[Nyrath]

Re: Space Junk in Earth Orbit

 

Somebody call the Toy Box?

Indeed, we need the Toy Box from Planetes

 

The fear is the dreaded Kessler Syndrome, which could eliminate all satellites and space exploration for decades. In Planetes, there was an episode where some deranged eco-terrorist group was trying to cause the syndrome. It seems that they were angry at all the resources spent on lunar bases, space stations, and expeditions to Jupiter.

[Nyrath]

Re: Space Junk in Earth Orbit

 

More here:

http://twistedphysics.typepad.com/cocktail_party_physics/2008/04/the-great-junky.html

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Space Junk in Earth Orbit

 

I remember Arthur C. Clarke remarking (in 2001: A Space Odyssey IIRC) that one day the Earth would have a ring system like Saturn's, composed of discarded bolts, torn insulation, and other bits of scrap.

[Cancer]

Re: Space Junk in Earth Orbit

 

It'll take a long, long time for it to settle down to a simple planar ring system, though.

[L. Marcus]

Re: Space Junk in Earth Orbit

 

How long?

[Susano]

Re: Space Junk in Earth Orbit

 

About this long: -----------------------------

[L. Marcus]

Re: Space Junk in Earth Orbit

 

That's not pretty long at all.

[BobGreenwade]

Re: Space Junk in Earth Orbit

 

Many years ago there was a TV show (I forget the title) starring Andy Griffith as a man who built his own rocket to -- in the pilot, anyway -- go to the moon, retrieve what was left behind up there, bring it back, and sell it for salvage. He ended up just donating the stuff back to NASA, the publicity from his effort being more than enough compensation. The series progressed with numerous other high-flying (literally and otherwise) salvage jobs.

 

I think it may be time for someone to take up such a business for real.

[L. Marcus]

Re: Space Junk in Earth Orbit

 

. . . A live-action version of Planetes would not come amiss.

[Susano]

Re: Space Junk in Earth Orbit

 

Many years ago there was a TV show (I forget the title) starring Andy Griffith as a man who built his own rocket to -- in the pilot, anyway -- go to the moon, retrieve what was left behind up there, bring it back, and sell it for salvage. He ended up just donating the stuff back to NASA, the publicity from his effort being more than enough compensation. The series progressed with numerous other high-flying (literally and otherwise) salvage jobs.

 

I think it may be time for someone to take up such a business for real.

 

That would be Salvage 1.

[BobGreenwade]

Re: Space Junk in Earth Orbit

 

That would be Salvage 1.

Thank you! (I was too lazy at that time to go to the IMDB and look it up....)

[tkdguy]

Re: Space Junk in Earth Orbit

 

Salvage was an interesting show. I don't recall them using the rocket too much after the first episode, where they went to the moon. I remember them using it only once... to burn up the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere?

[Merovign]

Re: Space Junk in Earth Orbit

 

1) Why have I never heard of Salvage 1? I have every episode of Quark, for crying out loud!

 

2) We could probably, given enough time and effort, get all that junk into a ring, which would be easier than retrieving it all or moving it out of orbit.

 

3) Another trick would be to make a satellite that collects junk and chucks it - the sun, deep space, the moon, even at Earth. Like the Toy Box, sort of. Though I imagine it would be more robotics and less EVA suits.

 

4) And yet another - a manufacturing/recycling satellite that collects and processes space junk into other things - stations, ships, etc. Maybe a touch outside current technical means.

 

I think of it less as junk and more as materials that we don't have to lift into space - it's already there.

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: Space Junk in Earth Orbit

 

Actually, the space debris is NASA's and other in-the-know space-faring organizations' efforts at reducing the attractiveness of earth to cattle-mutilating and anal-probing aliens. Most of 'em are scared to enter near-Earth space as a result, and occasionally one gets disabled in orbit. Eventually, Earthly scientists hope that someone intent on real scientific exchange, rather than space-fraternity initiation, will show up and establish contact, if only to ask us to "Clean up out here, won't ya?"

 

[Merovign]

Re: Space Junk in Earth Orbit

 

So, Baloo, that would be purchased as ablative, -1?

[Clonus]

Re: Space Junk in Earth Orbit

 

Many years ago there was a TV show (I forget the title) starring Andy Griffith as a man who built his own rocket to -- in the pilot' date=' anyway -- go to the moon, retrieve what was left behind up there, bring it back, and sell it for salvage..[/quote']

 

Some people call it "salvage". I call it "looting a site of massive historical importance".

[Merovign]

Re: Space Junk in Earth Orbit

 

Some people call it "salvage". I call it "looting a site of massive historical importance".

 

 

So, archaeology, then.

[Matt Frisbee]

Re: Space Junk in Earth Orbit

 

So far as Salvage 1 is concerned, I only remember the made for TV movie, but here is the page that details all of the other episodes:

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078681/

 

Judging from the episode descriptions, this could be Star/Pulp Hero fodder.

 

Matt "Memory-cells-still-working" Frisbee

[Nyrath]

Re: Space Junk in Earth Orbit

 

Judging from the episode descriptions' date=' this could be Star/Pulp Hero fodder. [/quote']

 

Indeed it could.

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/9782/salmoon.html

 

"These engineers decided simplicity was the only way they would be successful. Whereas NASA space vehicles had redundancy upon redundancy, the Salvage crew settled for an 85% to 90% safety factor. They were wanting something that was quick and cheap since they didn't have the luxury of tapping the resources of an entire country. "

 

As a side note (putting on my rocketry expert hat), the "Trans-Linear Vector Principle" is a misrepresentation. All spacecraft work that way, when they are in space.

 

The trouble is during lift-off and landing. While you are in Earth's gravity well, gravity imposes a "tax" of 9.8 meters per second penalty for each second you are in the gravity well. In order to avoid outrageous fuel consumption, you have to get your rocket out of the gravity well as fast as possible. And this means super high thrust.

 

In other words, the "Trans-Linear Vector Principle" will not work during liff-off and landing. In the real world, that is; it will work quite splendidly in your Star Hero campaign.

[DusterBoy]

Re: Space Junk in Earth Orbit

 

IN GURPS' Transhuman Space you can make a good living clearing up this junk. Such people are called "vacuum cleaners".

 

Now it's only a matter of time until one smartarse calls his ship "Hoover".