Jettisoned space junk -- how big?

"Jorge R. Frank" wrote in message
...
"John Gilbert" wrote in
ink.net:
Mediocrity has never been more powerful.

Speak for yourself. It seems you can't even be bothered to learn the truth
about who's sponsoring this stunt.

John must have forgotten about the International part of ISS.

Jeff
--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
safety"
- B. Franklin, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919)

Actually, the golf ball thing is coming from the Russians. They're
essentially being paid to do a commercial in LEO. Damn capitalist Russian
space program. How dare they interfere with the socialist NASA space
program. Don't they know LEO is for research, not profit?

Jeff


Okay, okay, I'm being too harsh on NASA. It hurts that no one can seem to
figure out a way to manage this truly unique resource to make good money
without being trivial. I actually don't mind the idea of product promotion
either - it just seems that there should be about twenty or thirty much more
important things getting much more press and excitement, but this really
dumb golf shot seems to get more press than anything else.

And yes, it is really the Russians and Canadians, not Nasa, but Nasa is in
charge of dealing with the Russians on station matters; and should be able
to suggest other projects to make money, or other ways to make this work.
How about they hit the golf ball and then we retrieve it with another
maneuverable satellite like we keep testing? Charge the golf company twice
as much - call it the universe's longest hole in one, and let our military
demonstrate anew our amazing technological prowess?

:-)

Nasa needs to put JPL in charge of all their media relations, they seem to
have the best record of getting people excited about the actual science side
of things.

John Gilbert

On Fri, 23 Jun 2006 18:05:55 GMT, "John Gilbert"
wrote:

And yes, it is really the Russians and Canadians, not Nasa, but Nasa is in
charge of dealing with the Russians on station matters; and should be able
to suggest other projects to make money, or other ways to make this work.

Yeah, right.

NASA: "Russia, thank you for keeping the ISS alive all these three
years while our Shuttle was grounded. Without you, ISS would have died
and all our investments in it lost. Now, please stop trying to film
commercials there to make a few bucks that will help you keep ISS
running a little while longer. You see, we call it International, but
we really want everyone else to do what we say, even though you are
the guys keeping ISS together..."

I wonder how many hours would pass before the Russans stopped
laughing.

Brian

In message , David Lesher
writes
Vlad writes:


Some day we will send a garbage truck up there and vacuum it all up.


Clarke brought that up in "3001". They had to clean up the area before
building the elevators, etc...


And he recycled that idea from his own "The Fountains of Paradise" (in
which they find dead Chinese astronauts, among other things).
Better leave the mechanics of "vacuuming it all up" as an exercise for
the student, as they say :-)

Jonathan Silverlight wrote:
And he recycled that idea from his own "The Fountains of Paradise" (in
which they find dead Chinese astronauts, among other things).
Better leave the mechanics of "vacuuming it all up" as an exercise for
the student, as they say :-)

Simple. By definition a vacuum cleaner would be in its natural
environment in... vacuum ;-) But you 'd have to make vacuum cleaners
with large solar wings. (a vacuum cleaner that flies) and probbaly want
it painted pink. Not sure how big an item then could suck up though. And
you'd need a huge space dust bag behind it. But consider that this would
be able to finally remove all the remaining thin atmosphere from LEO and
reduce the fuel costs for keeping the ISS in orbit since it woudln't
have as much drag. And if the cleaner can return to earth, it may be
able to release all the air it collected in LEO on the surface to bring
us fresh air.

And if that doesn't work, there was a company in japan in the 1960s that
launched rockets from under fake lake that were able to go fetch any
spacecraft and bring it back to earth. (some documentary showed how they
stole some russian and USA spacecraft). And I think that Andy Griffith
had also developped a space ship from a cement truck that was also able
to go and bring back space junk for recycling.



Another way to clean LEO, would be a reverse vacuum cleaner. Add lots of
air to LEO so that air resistance would cause all the debris to fall
down very fast. And if you add enough air, astronauts on the ISS might
be able to take a space walk without the need to wear space suits. Think
of the tourism opportunities if LEO had breathable air.


:-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-)

Some day we will send a garbage truck up there and vacuum it all up.

In a similar vein, didn't Mel Brooks think of this in _Spaceballs_ -- with
the gigantic robot maid sucking up the planet's atmosphere?

"David Lesher" wrote in message
...
Vlad writes:


Some day we will send a garbage truck up there and vacuum it all up.


Clarke brought that up in "3001". They had to clean up the area before
building the elevators, etc...

Where is Quark when you need him?

"Scott Hedrick" wrote in message
...

"David Lesher" wrote in message
...
Vlad writes:


Some day we will send a garbage truck up there and vacuum it all up.


Clarke brought that up in "3001". They had to clean up the area before
building the elevators, etc...

Where is Quark when you need him?

Or Tony Soprano.

wrote in message
oups.com...
In GEO its a BIG place. Sadly a expert reports the debris will diffuse
thru the area, cauising more collisions.

If a country like N korea ever wanted to screw lots of other countries
they could make popular orbits unusable.

Even minor debris can ruin delicate things like solar panels


The Anime (and Manga) series Planetes is largely concerned with the problem
of space debris, including the deliberate creation of such. Probably one of
the most technologically accurate SF series in a long time, with a great
opening sequence filled with historical details.