SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Astronauts eject UK-led space junk demo mission
A UK-led project to showcase methods to tackle space junk has just been pushed out of the International Space Station.
The RemoveDebris satellite was ejected a short while ago with the help of a robotic arm.
The 100kg craft, built in Guildford, has a net and a harpoon.
These are just two of the multiple ideas currently being considered to snare rogue hardware, some 7,500 tonnes of which is now said to be circling the planet.
Previously: SpaceX Launches CRS-14 Resupply Mission to the ISS
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Space Junk Removal Testing Craft Ejected From the ISS
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 20 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Can anyone remember when the times were not hard, and money not scarce?
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday June 22 2018, @07:48PM
First off, "space junk" is generally used to refer to the debris created by previous collisions (and dropped wrenches, etc.), small enough to be difficult to track - intact satellites are easily tracked navigation hazards.
Destroying something you publicly called trash has got to be one of the least-compelling reasons to go to war I've ever heard. It's not going to be a *reason* to go to war - at best it will be a really bad excuse. And of course we have to track space junk even if we know who "owns" it since, as you pointed out, there's no such thing as a stable orbit.
Any de-orbit attempt that skims the atmosphere is successful, though it may take several more passes to complete than planned, since every subsequent orbit will also skim the atmosphere.
As for Apollo 13 - the orbit-exit in question was NOT to de-orbit, but rather to boost out of lunar orbit on a trajectory that would carry it across the it 239,000 miles to just skim the 8,000-mile diameter target of the Earth on a path that would allow for orbital braking and reentry without killing the crew. A *far* more difficult thing to do than simply de-orbit junk that you want to have burn up in the atmosphere. De-orbitting is easy - just fire your rocket directly against your line of motion, to impart enough delta-v to lower the opposite side of the orbit into the Earth's atmosphere. For safety you can impart too much delta-v so that you take a more direct route to collision with Earth - only a problem if deorbitting something large and durable enough to have a fair chance of reaching the ground if it comes in at a steep angle.