cfleon@hotmail.com
February 18th 09, 09:38 PM
From skyandtelescope,com:
European Space Agency hopes to clean up space junk
February 16, 2009Associated Press/AP Online
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By MELISSA EDDY
DARMSTADT, Germany - Wary of the multitude of satellites in earth's
orbit, the European Space Agency has begun a program to monitor space
debris and set up uniform standards to prevent future collisions far
above the planet, an official said Monday.
The euro50 million ($64 million) program - dubbed Space Situational
Awareness - aims to increase information for scientists on the ground
about the estimated 13,000 satellites and other man-made bodies
orbiting the planet, ESA space debris expert Jean-Francois Kaufeler
told reporters.
The program was launched in January. On Feb. 10, the collision of two
satellites generated space junk that could circle Earth and threaten
other satellites for the next 10,000 years.
"What the last accident showed us is that we need to do much more. We
need to be receiving much more precise data in order to prevent
further collisions," Kaufeler said of the collision.
The smashup happened 500 miles (800 kilometers) over Siberia and
involved a derelict Russian spacecraft designed for military
communications and a working satellite owned by U.S.-based Iridium,
which served commercial customers as well as the U.S. Defense
Department.
A key element of the program is to increase the amount of information
shared worldwide between the various space agencies, including NASA
and Russia's Roscosmos, Kaufeler said.
Kaufeler also said that another aspect that must be examined is
establishing international standards on how debris is described,
tracked and, if needed, moved so as to prevent any collisions.
U.S. and Russian officials traded shots over who should be blamed for
the collision that spewed speeding clouds of debris into space,
threatening other unmanned spacecraft in nearby orbits.
No one has any idea yet how many pieces of space junk were generated
by the collision or how big they might be. But the crash scattered
space junk in orbits 300 to 800 miles (500 to 1,300 kilometers) above
Earth, according to Maj. Gen. Alexander Yakushin, chief of staff for
the Russian military's Space Forces.
Experts in space debris will meet later this week in Vienna at a U.N.
seminar to come up with better ways to prevent future crashes, and the
5th European Conference on Space Debris in March at ESA.
"We need more precision in space," said Kaufeler. "The current
measurements (of space debris) are not precise enough."
He noted that neither ESA nor NASA were able to predict last week's
collision, although his scientists have been warning for two decades
that such an accident could happen.
"The problem of space debris is unique," said Kaufeler. "We need to
work together, we need to unify our forces if we are going to solve
it."
Also this year, the Europeans plan to launch two new telescopes into
space to study the far reaches of space. The Planck telescope will map
background radiation that fills space, while the Herschel space
telescope will give astronomers a view of far-infrared and sub-
millimeter wavelengths.
=============================
One idea I've thought up is: launch, say, a cubic mile of aerogel into
an orbit with a lot of small debris. The aerogel would slow down the
stuff, and even capture some of it. With a low enough perigee, it
could reenter in a couple of months (or years, if needed). Doing this
several times in different orbits could cut down on some of the worse
situations.
Is this feasible?
European Space Agency hopes to clean up space junk
February 16, 2009Associated Press/AP Online
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By MELISSA EDDY
DARMSTADT, Germany - Wary of the multitude of satellites in earth's
orbit, the European Space Agency has begun a program to monitor space
debris and set up uniform standards to prevent future collisions far
above the planet, an official said Monday.
The euro50 million ($64 million) program - dubbed Space Situational
Awareness - aims to increase information for scientists on the ground
about the estimated 13,000 satellites and other man-made bodies
orbiting the planet, ESA space debris expert Jean-Francois Kaufeler
told reporters.
The program was launched in January. On Feb. 10, the collision of two
satellites generated space junk that could circle Earth and threaten
other satellites for the next 10,000 years.
"What the last accident showed us is that we need to do much more. We
need to be receiving much more precise data in order to prevent
further collisions," Kaufeler said of the collision.
The smashup happened 500 miles (800 kilometers) over Siberia and
involved a derelict Russian spacecraft designed for military
communications and a working satellite owned by U.S.-based Iridium,
which served commercial customers as well as the U.S. Defense
Department.
A key element of the program is to increase the amount of information
shared worldwide between the various space agencies, including NASA
and Russia's Roscosmos, Kaufeler said.
Kaufeler also said that another aspect that must be examined is
establishing international standards on how debris is described,
tracked and, if needed, moved so as to prevent any collisions.
U.S. and Russian officials traded shots over who should be blamed for
the collision that spewed speeding clouds of debris into space,
threatening other unmanned spacecraft in nearby orbits.
No one has any idea yet how many pieces of space junk were generated
by the collision or how big they might be. But the crash scattered
space junk in orbits 300 to 800 miles (500 to 1,300 kilometers) above
Earth, according to Maj. Gen. Alexander Yakushin, chief of staff for
the Russian military's Space Forces.
Experts in space debris will meet later this week in Vienna at a U.N.
seminar to come up with better ways to prevent future crashes, and the
5th European Conference on Space Debris in March at ESA.
"We need more precision in space," said Kaufeler. "The current
measurements (of space debris) are not precise enough."
He noted that neither ESA nor NASA were able to predict last week's
collision, although his scientists have been warning for two decades
that such an accident could happen.
"The problem of space debris is unique," said Kaufeler. "We need to
work together, we need to unify our forces if we are going to solve
it."
Also this year, the Europeans plan to launch two new telescopes into
space to study the far reaches of space. The Planck telescope will map
background radiation that fills space, while the Herschel space
telescope will give astronomers a view of far-infrared and sub-
millimeter wavelengths.
=============================
One idea I've thought up is: launch, say, a cubic mile of aerogel into
an orbit with a lot of small debris. The aerogel would slow down the
stuff, and even capture some of it. With a low enough perigee, it
could reenter in a couple of months (or years, if needed). Doing this
several times in different orbits could cut down on some of the worse
situations.
Is this feasible?