[SpaceProgram] We’ve Already Passed the Tipping Point for Orbital Debris - IEEE Spectrum

[Jerry Isdale]

I love the idea of trash cannons!

And do check on PsyTek's links to the USAF Space Fence.
One of the main purposes for the Maui astro observatories and supercomputing center is space debris tracking.
They have some science-y scopes up there, but original DARPA funding was for debris tracking.
One project they have is a laser satellite tracker/measurement system where they bounce a laser off sats to get high res distance measurements.
hmm, maybe I can interest some of their techs in our program.

Jerry Isdale
http://MauiMakers.com
http://www.mauimakers.com/blog/thursday-public-meeting/

On Oct 3, 2012, at 5:21 AM, Matt Johnson wrote:

> Cole, can you imagine the reaction when an obsolete Russian military
> satellite is taken down by a frozen turd from the ISS. The diplomatic
> repercussions would be huge.
> 
> The idea is amusing though.
> 
> --
> Matt Johnson
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, Oct 3, 2012 at 4:19 AM, cole santos <cksantos85 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Space based ablation with a laser would be best. Small bursts of an
>> extremely high powered laser would vaporize one side creating a small amount
>> of thrust, if fired repetitively it would deorbit the object eventually.
>> 
>> On the other side of things waste from the iss could be ejected as
>> projectiles frozen into optimal shapes for pushing objects. Toilet to
>> ice-cube maker, to canada arm mounted with steam powered cannon. Projectiles
>> impact objects over and over until they deorbit.
>> 
>> Anything large should be sent to the local hackerspace in that orbit...
>> 
>> On Wed, Oct 3, 2012 at 1:04 AM, Matt Johnson <railmeat at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> The BBC has a report of another idea for capturing space debris. It is
>>> to harpoon old satellites and drag them down:
>>> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19803461. This seems
>>> like an idea that might be testable on a small scale. Perhaps it is
>>> relevant to SpaceGAMBIT.
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Matt Johnson
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Tue, Oct 2, 2012 at 7:49 AM, Matt Johnson <railmeat at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> I think the typical human behavior has been to move on to a new area
>>>> once one becomes polluted. I am not sure how that would work in near
>>>> earth orbit.
>>>> 
>>>> Here is an article from 2/12 about a Swiss university effort to use a
>>>> picosatellite to remove an older picosatellite:
>>>> http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2032/1 This is an 11 million
>>>> dollar effort so a bit too expensive for SpaceGAMBIT, but it is an
>>>> interesting and useful idea and a lot cheaper then most things in
>>>> space.
>>>> 
>>>> --
>>>> Matt Johnson
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On Tue, Oct 2, 2012 at 3:23 AM, Jerry Isdale <isdale at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/satellites/weve-already-passed-the-tipping-point-for-orbital-debris
>>>>> 
>>>>> Interesting article from IEEE - although we are not seeing the major
>>>>> fallout
>>>>> from this overpopulation yet, the effects will rise as time goes on.
>>>>> Perhaps some of our (SpaceGAMBIT) relatively near term effort could be
>>>>> on
>>>>> addressing this problem.  We need to clean up our local area before we
>>>>> go
>>>>> off trashing the rest of the solar system, and galaxy!
>>>>> 
>>>>> Jerry Isdale
>>>>> isdale at gmail.com
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> SpaceProgram mailing list
>>>>> SpaceProgram at lists.hackerspaces.org
>>>>> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/spaceprogram
>>>>> 
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>> 
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