Discussion Cleaning up the space junk?

[N_Molson]

Now that's an interesting project :yes:

I'm very curious about this !

 

[Ghostrider]

All your sats are belong to us!

 

[orb]

Discovery News: Swiss to Grab World's Biggest Space Problem by its Junk

 

[MattBaker]

Well, the big pieces of space debris, like old satellites, can be tracked easily and the little debris, that are much more dangerous because they are not that easy to track are scattered around.
Of course it would be nice to have such a system, but I don't see the cost-effectivenes in that, when you have a look on the Fengyun-1C debris it looks very hard to catch them all and I think it's the same with Kosmos-2251 or other major debris.

I think there must be an other way reducing space junk, maybe don't burn all fuel of your orbit insertion stage and deorbit it afterwards? Would be an idea against rocket stages floating around.

 

[orb]

SPACE.com: Robot Space 'Gas Attendant' Could Salvage Old Satellites by 2015:

By the middle of the decade, it may be possible to salvage satellites that run out of fuel or suffer minor malfunctions in orbit.

Canada-based aerospace firm MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. is designing a spacecraft that will serve as an orbiting gas station and mechanic. The robotic vehicle will be able to top off satellites' fuel tanks and perform minor repairs as needed. MDA's first servicing satellite could be ready to go by 2015 or 2016, if a suitable customer steps up, company officials said.

"The future for space servicing is definitely now," Dan King, director of orbital robotics at MDA, said during a presentation with NASA's Future In-Space Operations working group yesterday (Feb. 15). "The key technologies that are needed to do some fundamental operational-type services are here."


Extending satellites' lives

Currently, most satellites last only as long as their stores of onboard propellant allow. When a spacecraft runs out of fuel, it essentially turns into a very expensive piece of space junk, adding to the massive cloud of debris already clogging Earth orbit.

"The analogy is almost like, you drive your Ferrari and you throw away your Ferrari after running a single tank of gas," King said.

MDA wants to change this by developing a refueling spacecraft called the Space Infrastructure Servicing vehicle. The unmanned SIS would be an orbital mechanic as a well as a gas station attendant, using its robotic arm and tool kit to make minor repairs to stricken satellites.

The servicing spacecraft would be controlled from the ground, but it could operate with varying degrees of autonomy, depending on the characteristics of each mission, King said.

The SIS vehicle is designed to refuel and repair a variety of client satellites, ranging from commercial to governmental. The flying gas station would be about the size of a standard telecommunications satellite, but far more of its weight would consist of propellant, King said.

According to MDA's designs, when the SIS spacecraft itself runs low on fuel, a separately launched "tanker" would replenish its supply of propellant, allowing the vehicle to continue servicing satellites far into the future.

"We very much plan to have this as a sustainable and expandable-type service as well," King said.

MDA could launch its first SIS within three and half years, King added, so a servicing satellite could be operational by 2015 or 2016 — provided the company can find a customer.

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[N_Molson]

Tankers to feed tankers...

 

[sirbobalot]

someone would be doing the clean up right now if they thought there was a profit in it

 

[orb]

SPACE.com: Space Junk Janitors Should Sweep Up 5 Dead Satellites a Year, Experts Say

 

[orb]

SPACE.com: Fate of Space Gas Station Project Awaits DARPA Decision:

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Canada’s MDA Corp. on Feb. 28 said it would await a decision on a contract bid to the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) before deciding whether to shelve its work on a vehicle to service satellites and perform other chores in orbit.

MDA also said it expects at least one large telecommunications satellite order this year from Russia in addition to the two satellites it is already building.

{...}

 

[orb]

Parabolic Arc: Company Gets $1.9 Million from NASA to Develop Debris Removal Spacecraft:

NASA has awarded a $1.9 million contract to a South Carolina company for the development of the ElectroDynamic Debris Eliminator (EDDE) vehicle, which is designed to clean up the growing debris problem in low Earth orbit.

Star Technology and Research (STAR) was awarded the contract under NASA’s Game Changing Technology program. STAR President Jerome Pearson is the project’s principal investigator.

“This is a new contract that started last month and will run for 2 years,” said Joe Carroll of Tether Applications, which is partnered on the project. “The focus is maturing technologies for EDDE on the ground; we may get a flight experiment later if the work goes well.”

According to STAR PowerPoint presentations, the vehicle is “based on the use of our electrodynamic thruster for space propulsion” and has the following features:

• Small vehicles that can be launched piggyback to larger satellites
• Propellantless, reusable space vehicles with virtually unlimited delta-V using solar power and electrodynamic thrust
• Maneuverable over all of low Earth orbit at any inclination
• Reusable, each capable of removing many targets
• Compact and lightweight—just 100 kg (220 lb), packs into 0.11 m3 (4 ft3)
• Captures debris with lightweight nets or grappler
• Single EDDE could capture 136 US sun-synchronous objects (68 tons) in 3 years
• 12 EDDEs could remove all 2,565 pieces (2,166 metric tons) of LEO debris greater than 2 kg in 7 years

According to a NASA budget document, STAR is to provide the space agency “with an advanced, sub-scale tether, and complete the manufacture and functional testing of this prototype for a tether-based in-space propulsion system” during the 2013 Fiscal Year, which begins on Oct. 1.

{...}

 

[george7378]

I think the best solution would be to use a pulse laser to eliminate small debris (a ~10cm object could be de-orbited in a single pass with a decent laser), and then to make sure that future large satellites have some kind of backup engine or additional fuel on board to de-orbit them before they die.

 

[orb]

SPACE.com: How Huffing and Puffing Could Remove Space Junk

 

[orb]

SPACE.com: Spacecraft Repair Droids Could Give Satellites Longer Lives:

{...}

ViviSat's Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV) is being designed to dock to satellites in orbit, and then use its own thrusters to provide propulsion and attitude control. Among other functions, the spacecraft will be able to adjust an older satellite's orbit, rescue fully fueled satellites that may have launched into the wrong location, or move a satellite into a different orbit for a completely new purpose.

{...}

Astromech droids.

 

[orb]

SPACE.com: Space Junk Hazards Force International Response:

Time is running out to get serious about fixing the problem of space debris, experts say.

As more countries around the world build up their space capabilities, U.S. lawmakers are keen to address the growing issue of potentially harmful debris in orbit. But while policies have attempted to tackle the problem, no major strides have been made.

{...}

 

[orb]

ESA: ESA’s Clean Space targets orbital debris and greener environment

 

[Delta4]

I think that a large, magnetic satellite dish-shaped piece of very sturdy mesh should be sent to orbit, with an RCS, and scoop everything up like a strainer. It folds up and deorbits. Problem solved.

 

[Capt_hensley]

I think that a large, magnetic satellite dish-shaped piece of very sturdy mesh should be sent to orbit, with an RCS, and scoop everything up like a strainer. It folds up and deorbits. Problem solved.

The trouble is not the large objects... it's the very small, paint chips, aluminum, fiberglass shreds, nylon tabs, straps, and insulation. But nice thought.

I was thinking about a giant thick gel sticky pad, made of some exotic alloy reenforced carbon-carbon, Hasteloy-X, impact resistant, energy absorbing honeycomb structure thingy-majig!.

 

[Keatah]

The problem I see is that these metallic and futuristic nets have to be huge! Hundreds or thousands of sq km to be effective.

 

[Capt_hensley]

The problem I see is that these metallic and futuristic nets have to be huge! Hundreds or thousands of sq km to be effective.

Huge works, but huge and fast would be better, even with acres of a "trap" "net" or what ever, if it's slow it would still take too long to be of any real benifit. Something that could travel at 50,000km per second would be a great start. Several somethings on this scale even better!

PS. 299,792.458 kilometers per second is the speed of light.

 

[palebluevoice]

How about we just do this? Two problems solved.