https://phys.org/news/2023-06-space-tractor-sci-fi.html
NASA estimates that about 23,000 chunks of debris the size of a softball or larger currently swirl through space. All that junk means that another collision like the one that destroyed Iridium 33 becomes increasingly likely every year—only this time, the fallout could be much worse.
"The problem with space debris is that once you have a collision, you're creating even more space debris," said Julian Hammerl, a doctoral student in aerospace engineering sciences at CU Boulder. "You have an increased likelihood of causing another collision, which will create even more debris. There's a cascade effect."
Hammerl and a team led by Professor Hanspeter Schaub have a plan for stopping those cascades before they start. The researchers are drawing on one of the oldest tropes in science fiction: tractor beams like the ones the Starship Enterprise uses to safely move asteroids out of the way.
Imagine this: In the not-so-distant future, a fleet of small spacecraft could whiz around Earth, rendezvousing with dead hunks of metal in geosynchronous orbit around the planet. Then, using devices called "electron beams," these space dumpster trucks would slowly haul that debris to safety without ever having to touch it—all by tapping into the same kind of physics that make your socks stick to your pants in the dryer.
[...] "GEO is like the Bel Air of space," Schaub said.
It's also getting crowded. Engineers estimate that there are about 180 potential geosynchronous orbital parking spots where satellites can squeeze into. All of them have been claimed or are already occupied.
Tractor beams, Schaub said, may be able to safely move old spacecraft out of the way, making room for the next generation of satellites.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Fnord666 on Sunday June 04 2023, @12:32AM (2 children)
But will it work on Japan's wooden satellites?
https://www.independent.co.uk/space/japan-wood-satellite-launch-2024-b2349551.html [independent.co.uk]
(Score: 4, Informative) by istartedi on Sunday June 04 2023, @12:55AM
That was a fascinating link, but to speculate on an answer I think it would still work. They're talking about electrically charging things, which you can do to non-metallic materials as well as metals. In any event, while the body of the satellite might be wood it would still be full of electronics that would respond to electro-magnetism as well as electric fields.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Sunday June 04 2023, @03:17AM
Static electric charges work better on non-conductive surfaces than on conductive surfaces, though perhaps this is because things on Earth aren't really isolated, so the charges can easily leak away from conductive surfaces.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by legont on Sunday June 04 2023, @03:38AM (5 children)
Russia, off course, has the largest claim based on pure geography.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 4, Informative) by ElizabethGreene on Sunday June 04 2023, @01:34PM (1 child)
The altitude of Geosynchronous orbit is 35,786 km / 22,236 mi. That's above mean sea level, so add on another 6,371 km / 3958 miles to get the radius of the orbit circle. Double that, triple it, and the circumference of that orbit is ~240,000 kilometers. Divide that by 180 and they end up spaced a *LONG* way apart.
How far?
Park a schoolbus in Chicago and Washington DC.
Park a metric schoolbus in London and another in Berlin.
It's a little farther than that actually, and a schoolbus is the current upper bound size for GEO satellites.
My non-expert understanding is the 180 GEO parking spot limitation is technical and political, not imposed by physics. If we have spacecraft capable of actively deorbiting malfunctioning hardware instead of letting them Flagellate (PDF) [nasa.gov] out there and satellite platforms with avoidance detection and response abilities we can safely increase satellite density.
(Score: 2) by legont on Monday June 05 2023, @04:33AM
I don't know exactly why, but even 40 years ago sports on geostationary orbit were negotiated and the issue I stated was a big deal.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 04 2023, @07:21PM
Russia can claim whatever, doesn't mean they deserve any piece of it or that it's in any way just.
Slava Ukraini! Justice to the world! Slay the orcs!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Sunday June 04 2023, @07:41PM (1 child)
The geostationary orbit is above the equator. How much of the equator is Russian?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by legont on Monday June 05 2023, @04:31AM
There are friendly Africa, India and China down south of Russia. Most are members of BRICS.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by theluggage on Sunday June 04 2023, @12:31PM (1 child)
I think you mean 'like the ones used in E.E. 'Doc' Smith's Lensmen stories, 30 years before Star Trek'...
(Ok, more people will have heard of Trek, but if you want to justify the 'oldest tropes' claim... Also, not many tractor beams in Frankenstein or The Time Machine so maybe we're talking "space opera" rather than SF in general)
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday June 04 2023, @07:51PM
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TractorBeam [tvtropes.org]
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 04 2023, @06:53PM (1 child)
But has NASA come up with an answer what happens to half of the socks in a washing machine? I think not, defund NASA.
(Score: 3, Touché) by maxwell demon on Sunday June 04 2023, @07:55PM
Of course they have. But their wormhole device is still top secret, so they can't tell you.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday June 04 2023, @07:15PM (1 child)
I thought the deflector dish on the Enterprise moved 'objects' out of the way, not the tractor beam.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday June 05 2023, @07:06PM
Out of the way, yes - in general, no. Tractor beams are used for moving particular objects in a controlled fashion - especially* when pulling is involved. The deflector dish is more like an untargeted repulsor shield, or a scienced-up train engine cattle-guard.
Of course, this beam doesn't pull anything either, unlike the carefully modulated laser beams others have developed that *can* pull (tiny) objects and are now years (decades?) old.
Instead the beam here is just a bog-standard electron beam, nothing "tractor" about it. The tractor portion is the rest of the system - the beam produces a charge difference between the target and the "tractor", and the resulting electrostatic attraction can be used to gently pull the target around without touching it.
But I guess "tractor beam" generates more clicks than "electrostatic tethering system that uses an electron beam to generate the voltage". At this point I rarely bother commenting on the wild inaccuracies of science "reporting" about even the simplest systems, I just assume everything is so wildly wrong that you'd be more accurately informed if you just never read it at all. I wish I could say that getting grade-school science that wrong is a new low...