[FPSPACE] Space Junk // By Fred Guterl | NEWSWEEK //PublishedAug1, 2009

[Jens Kieffer-Olsen]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: James Oberg [mailto:jameseoberg at comcast.net] 
> Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 5:17 PM
> 
> > What a pity if the financial crisis is blocking for a cash injection
> > allowing their inventory of 10 cm objects to grow by one order of
> > magnitude.
> 
> Gosh, what's keeping Europe from doing it?
 

 Good point, Ed ... eh, Jim!


 Also from the article:

> Many engineers are beginning to think that the only way to reverse
> the Kessler Syndrome will be to start actively removing junk from
> orbit. There is no shortage of ideas for doing so. For small and
> medium-size objects, engineers are noodling the idea of building
> lasers with beams powerful enough to "push" objects into higher
> orbits, where they're less likely to collide with satellites.
> (Eventually they'd come drifting back down, but that would be a
> problem for future generations.) One method to remove bigger,
> more threatening objects might be to send up some kind of spaceship
> to capture them one at a time and cart them to a lower orbit, where
> they would burn up harmlessly in the atmosphere. Another idea is to
> extend a tether from a space ship, grab hold of a piece of junk,
> and yank it down out of orbit. Either way, chasing down enough
> objects to make a difference would call for an enormous expenditure
> of rocket power.


 Reminds me of the MIT students who did a treatise in 2007 on the
 large-scale use of treadmills to harvest sustainable energy :-)


 What obviously should be in focus at this point in time is to
 prevent satellites from crashing into one another. Launching
 a spacecart to obviate an impending crash could well be cost-
 justified.

 Just as tabs is kept on objects approaching the ISS, it's bound
 to be known in several camps long before, if a KH-12 and a KOBALT-M
 are aiming for serious hanky-panky in space. 

 But let's waste neither USD nor EUR on a wild cleaning spree in
 space. If a satellite is coming down, we have corporations such
 as our friends at FEMA to care for us:

 
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/-if-satellite-hits-femas-ready-/2008/02/19/327
6782.htm

 "While it's scary to think of a satellite falling to Earth,
 it's probably less of a danger than a lightning strike or
 other calamity," [Clinton Police Chief Joseph Faughnan] said.
   

--
Jens Kieffer-Olsen
Slagelse, Denmark


> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Jens Kieffer-Olsen" <dstdba at post4.tele.dk>
> To: <fpspace at friends-partners.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 10:08 AM
> Subject: Re: [FPSPACE] Space Junk // By Fred Guterl | NEWSWEEK // 
> PublishedAug1, 2009
> 
> 
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: James Oberg [mailto:jameseoberg at comcast.net]
> > Sent: Monday, August 03, 2009 6:28 AM
> >
> >> Any publicity is supposed to be good publicity, but this article
> >> strikes me as being pretty garbled.
> >> Or am I being (again, sigh) too over-critical?
> >>
> >> Space Junk // By Fred Guterl | NEWSWEEK //    Published Aug 1, 2009
> >
> > [snippo]
> >
> >> The U.S. Space Surveillance Network currently uses a combination of
> >> radar and optical telescopes around the globe to keep tabs 
> on objects
> >> greater than five to 10 centimeters, periodically updating 
> the position
> >> of each one. Even so, it can manage only about 13,000 objects.
> >
> > What a pity if the financial crisis is blocking for a cash injection
> > allowing their inventory of 10 cm objects to grow by one order of
> > magnitude.
> >
> > --
> > Jens Kieffer-Olsen
> > Slagelse, Denmark
> > 
> 
> 
>