Trash, does it all burn up?

Hmm, in the press conf yesterday, someone asked about rubbish. and of course
they said it was packed into a now redundant spacecraft and destroyed by
burning it up over the Pacific. However, this begs some questions. firstly,
does it, in fact all burn up, and second, is this really the way to do it
considering all the products of said destructive burning are put into the
upper atmosphere.


Brian

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On 5/03/2011 8:29 PM, Brian Gaff wrote:
Hmm, in the press conf yesterday, someone asked about rubbish. and of course
they said it was packed into a now redundant spacecraft and destroyed by
burning it up over the Pacific. However, this begs some questions. firstly,
does it, in fact all burn up, and second, is this really the way to do it
considering all the products of said destructive burning are put into the
upper atmosphere.


Brian


If you mean 'combustion byproducts' (pollution), there will be some, but
it's at comparitively high altitude and probably won't affect the
atmosphere.

There may, however, be some components of the spacecraft itself that
'land' on water. That's one of the main reasons for re-entry over the
ocean.

Yes, but if some components do survive, how do we know that all the rubbish
does.
It does seem rather a rubbish idea.. pun intended. Its only because they
are in earth orbit this can be done. I wonder what they would do on the
Moon, mars or in transit?
Brian

--
Brian Gaff -
Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
in the display name may be lost.
Blind user, so no pictures please!
"Alan Erskine" wrote in message
gpond.com...
On 5/03/2011 8:29 PM, Brian Gaff wrote:
Hmm, in the press conf yesterday, someone asked about rubbish. and of
course
they said it was packed into a now redundant spacecraft and destroyed by
burning it up over the Pacific. However, this begs some questions.
firstly,
does it, in fact all burn up, and second, is this really the way to do it
considering all the products of said destructive burning are put into
the
upper atmosphere.


Brian


If you mean 'combustion byproducts' (pollution), there will be some, but
it's at comparitively high altitude and probably won't affect the
atmosphere.

There may, however, be some components of the spacecraft itself that
'land' on water. That's one of the main reasons for re-entry over the
ocean.

On 6/03/2011 8:29 PM, Brian Gaff wrote:
Yes, but if some components do survive, how do we know that all the rubbish
does.
It does seem rather a rubbish idea.. pun intended. Its only because they
are in earth orbit this can be done. I wonder what they would do on the
Moon, mars or in transit?
Brian


In transit they'd still eject it - it would then float away (just enough
air pressure inside the rubbish hatch....

On the Moon or on Mars, they'd recycle as much as possible - all the
paper, cardboard and food scraps would be composted (or otherwise
processed) to grow food.