Space junk at tipping point, says report


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Space junk at tipping point, says report

Scientists in the US have warned Nasa that the amount of so-called space junk orbiting Earth is at tipping point.

A report by the National Research Council says the debris could cause fatal leaks in spaceships or destroy valuable satellites.

It calls for international regulations to limit the junk and more research into the possible use of launching large magnetic nets or giant umbrellas.

The debris includes clouds of minuscule fragments, old boosters and satellites.

Some computer models show the amount of orbital rubbish "has reached a tipping point, with enough currently in orbit to continually collide and create even more debris, raising the risk of spacecraft failures," the research council said in a statement on Thursday.

Situation 'critical'

Hopes of limiting the amount of space junk in orbit suffered two major setbacks in recent years.

In 2007, China conducted an anti-satellite weapon test which destroyed a decommissioned weather satellite, smashing the object into 150,000 pieces larger than 1cm.

Two years later, two satellites - one defunct and one active - crashed in orbit, creating even more debris.

"Those two single events doubled the amount of fragments in Earth orbit and completely wiped out what we had done in the last 25 years," said Donald Kessler, who led the research.

There are 22,000 pieces of debris large enough to track from the ground, but smaller objects could still cause serious damage.

The International Space Station must occasionally dodge some of the junk, which flies around the Earth at speeds of up to 17,500 mph (28,164 km/h).

In June, some debris narrowly missed the space station, forcing its six crew to go to their escape capsules and prepare for an emergency evacuation back to Earth.

The situation is critical, said Mr Kessler, a retired Nasa scientist, because colliding debris creates even more of the junk.

"We've lost control of the environment," he said.

The report makes no recommendations about how to clean up the field of debris.

But it refers to an earlier study for the Pentagon's science think-tank, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa).

The Darpa report, dubbed "Catcher's Mitt", suggested a range of technologies, including harpoons, nets and an umbrella-shaped device that would sweep up the debris.

The aim would be to push the debris further towards the earth where it would burn up, or into a higher but safer orbit.

Source: BBC News

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this is no laughing matter, it's the result of decades of carelessness and redundant multi-stage rocket launchers (don't hate me Doc). while i don't think the situation is as bad as they make it seem, it's nothing to laugh at. i also believe we're not generating as much debris now as we were in the past, but the stuff that's out there needs to be kept in mind.

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The sad thing is that as usual they ply us with all these dire warnings, but never come up with any ideas or plans to clean up the mess other than to refer to some old DARPA study that may or may not be even feasible

If they want it controlled and cleaned they need to STFU till they have an idea of what to do about the issue first.

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There are upcoming international conferences on both mitigation for new launches and cleanup.

Onr thing that's already changed is that satellites and upper stages are being designed to do a re-entry and burn up after their work is done. Examples are the Rusdian Progress cargo ship which does this after delivering cargo to the ISS and SpaceX's Falcon 9 second stage that does likewise after delivering Dragon and several satellites to different orbits.

Launch providers are also getting away from using explosive bolts for deployment and separations, instead opting for servos and either springs or hydraulics.

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The sad thing is that as usual they ply us with all these dire warnings, but never come up with any ideas or plans to clean up the mess other than to refer to some old DARPA study that may or may not be even feasible

If they want it controlled and cleaned they need to STFU till they have an idea of what to do about the issue first.

This is without a doubt the most shallow minded, ignorant, self aggrandising load of ******** I have ever seen :\

The (likely) STATISTICIANS who wrote this paper identified a critical issue. They identified the outcomes of this issue and wrote a paper describing and detailing the occurrence.

Now, the entire scientific community has a chance to work on solving the issue instead of just a single team of STATISTICIANS.

The result is that more minds are at work fixing the issue.

This is the basis of the entire academic system. I write a paper, peers review it and comment on it. If the paper is good enough, it changes scientists' points of view on whatever the paper was about and leads to new and interesting paths for research and discovery.

Thus we learn and the entire "collective intelligence" of researchers can adapt to new thinking and information and progress.

The idea that issues ought not be commented on without solutions is so mind bogglingly ignorant I can't even begin to write the response that it deserves :\

In b4 ban for my comment in the first line :\

thats good aint it? prevent the ufos from coming to visit :D

What if the UFO's are carrying super sexy space aliens in tight leather clothing :o

Then we want them to come ;)

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