CLOUD OF CLUTTER: A visualization of the population of tracked objects, primarily debris, in low Earth orbit. The objects are not scaled with respect to Earth.
Image: NASA
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Gazing up into the sky on a clear night, the heavens can appear as pristine as a mountain stream. But in truth, at least in Earth's vicinity, the trash factor in space may be more akin to what is found in New York City's East River. The region known as low Earth orbit (extending from 160 to 2,000 kilometers above Earth's surface), which is where many satellites spend their lives and "afterlives," has a litter problem caused by decades of neglect, and it's one that currently lacks an expedient solution.
The number of man-made objects drifting aimlessly in orbit has grown steadily for years thanks to rocket launches that deposit spent boosters in space as well as satellite retirements, after which the defunct craft are left to roam the skies like orbital tumbleweeds. But more violent incidents of late have raised the stakes.
As of July, when NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office published its most recent quarterly newsletter, roughly 15,000 pieces of space junk were being tracked in orbit by military monitors. (That catalogue only includes debris 10 centimeters or larger—roughly softball-size and up.) More than 2,500 of those fragments originated from a 2007 Chinese missile test in which a satellite was deliberately destroyed; another 1,100 stem from an accidental collision in February between a defunct Russian satellite and a functional communications satellite owned by a U.S. firm.
With thousands of pieces of tracked debris and countless smaller chunks posing a hazard that operational satellites and even manned missions sometimes have to dodge, it is only a matter of time before somebody—be it a lone government agency or a consortium of the concerned—takes charge of the cleanup.
Such a space-based "Superfund" effort may now be in the works: The U.S. military's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) posted a notice last week soliciting ideas on how to shrink the growing debris cloud in Earth orbit. The solicitation is merely a first step that promises no funding or commitment from the government, but several contractors have shown interest in contributing to a solution.
DARPA's information request calls for concepts "on the full spectrum of potential solutions, from quickly clearing a congested region in space of all types of debris to strategically removing large objects across a range of altitudes to manage the overall growth rate of debris."
Among the firms that have signed on so far to the solicitation as "interested vendors" are Boeing and Emergent Space Technologies in Greenbelt, Md. Both declined to discuss what strategies they would be suggesting. A spokesperson with Boeing's Phantom Works, home to the company's Advanced Network and Space Systems unit, said Monday that he had not yet received confirmation that his division was prepared to discuss the effort.
George Davis, president of Emergent, says his company had been considering the debris problem for some time. "Our role is likely to be one of support to a prime contractor in the areas of mission design and analysis, guidance, navigation and control, and ground systems integration," Davis says. He added that Emergent had some novel ideas for debris-mitigation missions but would not divulge any specifics.
DARPA's point person for the orbital debris inquiry, Tactical Technology Office program manager Wade Pulliam, said Tuesday morning he had not yet been given approval to discuss his agency's role publicly. A DARPA spokesperson explained that the agency needed more time to gather information before granting interviews.
More details—and possibly a formal funding opportunity—could be forthcoming after October 30, the deadline for informational submissions to DARPA.
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19 Comments
Add CommentHow about combining the tethered satellite concept with fly paper?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTwo words: Tractor Beam.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou can disolve it with acid, which would be very expensive to do or you can direct it back into earth's orbit with a solar powered laser where it would burn up. Either way, it will take some time and it will make good practice to train our sharpshooters for our next war(s).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow about just not worrying about it. The stuff re-enters the atmosphere and burns up all the time, and unless you are orbiting opposite directions or have two different highly elliptical orbits that cross, any "impacts" are going to be at roughly walking speed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSolar powered electromagnetic collectors. This would require multiple electromagnetic collectors because of the increasing gravitational pull as the collector increases its mass from collection of the metallic debris.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs for the aluminum and other nonmagnetic effected debris, I believe a project was in development from "Star Wars" missile defense for an expanding net. Though gathering the mass requirement would be greater for magnetic resistant material gathered by this method, at a specific point, gravitation pull would bring the accumulated debris into the atmosphere to burn up.
Solar powered electromagnetic collectors. This would require multiple electromagnetic collectors because of the increasing gravitational pull as the collector increases its mass from collection of the metallic debris.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs for the aluminum and other nonmagnetic effected debris, I believe a project was in development from "Star Wars" missile defense for an expanding net. Though the mass requirement would be greater for magnetic resistant material gathered by this method, at a specific point, gravitation pull would bring the accumulated debris into the atmosphere to burn up.
Clearspace, your solution raises a question. How large can a mass entering orbit be before it makes it through the atmosphere to the earth?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHowever, this could be taken into account while using either method and a thruster could direct the mass toward the Earth at the correct size.
Another question: would the burning up of all of this material (estimated at 5500 tonnes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_debris) in a short period of time cause undesired side effects? I.e. potential health issues due to oxidized metallic residue falling on nations the world over
dB333:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGood question! As you pointed out, thrusters would be required to direct the collectors to required areas. These thrusters would give control (speed) as to the maximum mass allowed to re-enter and totally burn up the debris.
Asteroids hit our atmosphere multiple times a day with no noticeable effect on our environment.
Ummmm, Community Service for drunk drivers. Give them one of the canvas bags the parks dept. guys use and launch 'em.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSix months on orbit for first offense. A year for repeaters.
Oh and we could take nominations. I nominate John Edwards and the GOP Governor who won't resign, you know, the one with the girl friend in South America.
Well, we could give a try.
For the time being, common sense says the only reasonable way to deal with MUST involve lazer blasting them from orbit, effectively pushing them out of orbit from a space-based platform, of course that's going to lead to weaponizing of space but to physically follow each piece and capture seems rather fictional; the fuel expenditure would be horrendous.....but a solar-powered lazer platform could be robotically programmed to blast away as each piece comes by for years on end.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd other countries can launch their own platform, or take truns operating ours, and help with the lazering of the debree so they cannot accuse us of trying to start a war with them. Since we already have a solar powered space station in orbit, we can make it stationary and connect the lazer to it. Since every advanced country uses that station, it will make good "on the job" training for them when they come up there and spend a week or two.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere must be a dedicated launch for this problem. This will be a good model for dealing with NEOs that seem large enough to impact earth before burning up. Forcing the smaller objects into the atmosphere would work for most of them, docking with the larger ones and collecting them or directing them into the ocean could be viable alterntives, whichever would be the most technologically feasible and risk free.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen the Earth's atmosphere will expand because of climatic change, the problem will self-repair, as orbital debris will burn when re-entering the surface of planet
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDuct Tape
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSince we know exactly where each piece of this stuff is why not build a robotic craft to go get them? Since time and speed are not an issue the Orbital Recycler could be powered with an ion engine.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisQuestion: is most of the debris orbiting in a west to east direction? If that's so could the OR travel in an east to west direction to more rapidly encounter the space debris?
The front end of the OR could be a soft metal plate (lead?) coated with AeroGel. The gel would capture small objects and the soft metal would absorb the impact of larger pieces.
From time to time the OR could be directed to the Space Station for servicing when needed. The metal plate with AeroGel could be loaded into one of the Russian Progress garbage scows which are intentionally de-orbited and burned in the atmosphere.
Terry Thomas...
the photographer
Atlanta, Georgia USA
www.TerryThomasPhotos.com
The obvious answer is to net these items robotically as stated above, but keep them in orbit. The cost and effort of building a facility at the space station would be fully offset by having a large amount of material to work with.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisStart building a real ship. This looks like opportunity knocking if I ever saw it.
Are all of you people using your brains? If you do your research, you would know that the debris; does 1 of 2 things things- Falls back to the earth, or stays in orbit,period!!! Yes, some of the material that does 'come home' is a little smaller in mass;but it still hits the earth with a significant force and it is 'glowing hot'! Maybe it will land in your backyard or in our childrens school!!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDo some research-Debris does 1 of 2 things; stays in Low earth orbit OR Falls back onto the earth; period!!!Maybe some of the mass does burn up during re-entry; but it hits with a significant force and it is 'glowing hot'. How long before we comprend the seriousness of the 'junk' that pollutes the skies of our home??? This 'junk' WILL eventually effect every humans physiology (butterfly effect)!!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe weaponizing of space will be an inevitability, especially because so much mischief can be done while preserving near absolute deniability. For instance, suppose one of the nations which feels threatened by China manages to put up a fairly massive space vehicle which it says is designed to explore the outer solar system. But this vehicle is not really packed with experiments, it is instead packed with extra fuel.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNor does the vehicle proceed to the outer solar system. Instead it detours into the asteroid belt where it selects a rather heavy iron rock about the size of the smallest pyramid at Giza. The vehicle inches up to this asteroid and carefully begins nudging it into a new orbit. After a few months the rock is headed out of the asteroid belt on a collision course with Earth.
Now, whatever you have been told, the chances of detecting this rock are very slim, especially if it was selected to have low surface albedo. It is going to impact the Earth and has in fact been directed so that it will strike our planet very precisely at the Three Gorges Dam during Spring run-off.
The exploratory space vehicle is now commanded to separate from the asteroid and just take itself off somewhere, anywhere. It will be reported as lost. With all its electronics shut down it truly will be. It could just be directed into the sun.
As the asteroid enters the atmosphere, much of it will burn away, but enough of it will survive and will impact close enough to the huge target to cause an immense catastrophe.
The Chinese may have their suspicions, but proving something would be impossible.