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http://theconversation.com/space-debris-what-can-we-do-with-unwanted-satellites-40736
There are thousands of satellites in Earth orbit, of varying age and usefulness. At some point they reach the end of their lives, at which point they become floating junk. What do we do with them then?
Most satellites are not designed with the end of their life in mind. But some are designed to be serviced, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, which as part of its final service was modified to include a soft capture mechanism. This is an interface designed to allow a future robotic spacecraft to attach itself and guide the telescope to safe disposal through burn-up in the Earth’s atmosphere once its operational life has ended.
Thinking about methods to retire satellites is important, because without proper disposal they become another source of space debris – fragments of old spacecraft, satellites and rockets now orbiting Earth at thousands of miles per hour. These fragments travel so fast that even a piece the size of a coin has enough energy to disable a whole satellite. There are well over 100,000 pieces this size or larger already orbiting Earth, never mind much larger items – for example the Progress unmanned cargo module, which Russian Space Agency mission controllers have lost control of and which will orbit progressively lower until it burns up in Earth’s atmosphere.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Sunday May 03 2015, @02:16AM
Insightful... up in space, there is no atmosphere to oxidize your stuff and no gravity to pull it apart.
I keep envisioning a big concave mirror which is mostly mylar foil arranged like a solar sail, which is temporarily deployed at the salvage site. You put your "useless" stuff at the focal point, its heated to melting point, and becomes a sphere due to surface tension. ( Idea shamelessly copied from Jack Vance, short story, "Sail 25" [technovelgy.com] )
Or, while its hot, extrude it to more usable forms. "Angle iron" for instance. Or maybe fasteners.
You may not need to worry about substantial supports, as there is no gravity trying to bend your freshly extruded material - you just push it out of the focal point so it "blackbody" radiates its heat, dropping its temperature drops below melting, and you are back to solid rod, bar, or whatever.
You may end up with "slag" as well, the end product of things like insulation, epoxy, glass, and the like. I do not know what it could be used for... can it be molten and foamed to make a pumice-like thermal insulation material?
What I do not know.. will these metals sublimate when melted in vacuum and all you get is gaseous metal?
I know nothing about "pollution" of space by releasing gaseous byproducts of decomposition. Will these gases return to Earth and be re-absorbed by natural cycles as earthly gases are? Or will they remain in place, offering drag to other satellites?
I do not think this is a simple question and deserves substantial research.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]