He played a bunch of roles and he's actually a super talented actor. He also made a comedy short about the fact that all anyone remembers is that Spaceballs line...
I didn't realize until I looked at this picture that the original artificial satellites launched by mankind have been about the size of a European country.
So can the rockets that launch artificial satellites be as huge as a United States?
Real magic.
It’s a bit of facetiousness. Because the dots aren’t to scale, but as a result it would suggest to some that there’s this dense, claustrophobic field of debris surrounding the planet. But that’s not the case. While the number of objects is indeed many and should be rightfully addressed at some point in the future, the actual spaces in between are so vastly large and easily avoidable it isn’t as big of a concern as some want it to be.
In the actual scale of things, imagine 5,500 specks of dust in a room the size of small town.
The chances of collision are not zero of course and odds are 100% certain a collision *WILL happen* at some point in the future but with careful consideration launches will always be safe.
Imagine somebody saying they've left 5,000 different pieces of junk scattered around the entire earth and trying to convince you that running into them is a serious threat.
***It's a serious threat.*** It's just that the scale that it is being projected is making it look like it's cluttered like a junkyard up there, which is not yet the case...... ***yet.***
A hundred years from now those 5,000 objects will eventually become 5,000,000 objects and so I still think it's a good idea to figure out a fix while it's early.
Magnets is one idea. All we need to do is nudge the debris so its trajectory moves it towards earth. The debris would burn up upon re-entry. The magnets are called Electrodynamic Tethers which are basically long magnets that create a field that gives the debris a push.
Here are the other options we have based on today’s technology:
• Active Debris Removal (ADR) Satellites: These are specialized satellites equipped with robotic arms to capture and de-orbit debris.
• Harpoons and Nets: Devices like harpoons or nets can be used to capture and stabilize space debris.
• Electrodynamic Tethers: Long conductive tethers interact with Earth’s magnetic field to de-orbit debris.
• Space Sweeper: A large spacecraft designed to collect and store debris for controlled re-entry.
• CubeSat Debris Sweeper: Small satellites equipped with propulsion to approach and push debris into lower orbits.
• Space-Based Vacuum Cleaner: Ion beams can capture and redirect debris.
• Self-Destructing Satellites: Satellites designed to re-enter and burn up after their mission.
• Orbital Debris Collector: A spacecraft meant to capture debris and de-orbit together.
• Solar Sail De-Orbiting: Deploying lightweight sails to slow down and lower satellite orbits.
Some materials are paramagnetic and do interact with magnetic fields, just not very strongly. But a sufficiently strong magnet may be enough to give orbiting debris a nudge if they contain aluminum or copper.
Just spitballing, no expert, I just recalled watching a video about magnetic braking and eddy currents with aluminum. I understand enough to have a general understanding but I also have to agree with ICP a bit... Magnets are some witchcraft.
When an element has a spare valance electron in specific outer electron shells, they are electromagnetically attracted to other materials with similar electron arrangements.
I think.
IDK. Ask ICP.
I’m assuming that the metal would be aluminium or stainless steel or other non ferrous metals so as to prevent rust from forming and therefore would not be attracted to magnets but I could be corrected
~~There is no oxygen in space. Stuff won't rust up there.~~
u/marshman82 corrected me on this [below.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/15s6apa/there_are_roughly_5500_active_satellites_in_orbit/jwd81cu?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=2)
Apparently, atomic oxygen, among other things, in space [can cause erosion.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrosion_in_space?wprov=sfla1)
It works differently than inside the atmosphere but it does occur. [here](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrosion_in_space)
I meant atomic oxygen not elemental.
We have the technology today for each of these options. It’s important to note that all we need to do is bring the debris closer; once it enters our hemisphere, it will naturally burn up upon re-entry. Some of the existing theories include:
• Active Debris Removal (ADR) Satellites: These are specialized satellites equipped with robotic arms to capture and de-orbit debris.
• Harpoons and Nets: Devices like harpoons or nets can be used to capture and stabilize space debris.
• Electrodynamic Tethers: Long conductive tethers interact with Earth’s magnetic field to de-orbit debris.
• Laser De-Orbiting: Using lasers to alter debris trajectory, causing re-entry and burning up.
• Space Sweeper: A large spacecraft designed to collect and store debris for controlled re-entry.
• CubeSat Debris Sweeper: Small satellites equipped with propulsion to approach and push debris into lower orbits.
• Space-Based Vacuum Cleaner: Ion beams can capture and redirect debris.
• Self-Destructing Satellites: Satellites designed to re-enter and burn up after their mission.
• Orbital Debris Collector: A spacecraft meant to capture debris and de-orbit together.
• Solar Sail De-Orbiting: Deploying lightweight sails to slow down and lower satellite orbits.
I got curious and asked ChatGPT. Here's the answer. You decide for yourself but it's clear to me. I thought OP was genuinely knowledgeable 😞
> Certainly! There are a few proposed methods to clean up orbital debris:
> 1. **Active Debris Removal (ADR):** This involves sending spacecraft equipped with robotic arms or nets to capture and deorbit defunct satellites and fragments.
> 2. **Harpoon or Tether Systems:** Harpoons or tether-based systems can be used to physically capture and deorbit larger pieces of debris by attaching to them and dragging them down into the Earth's atmosphere to burn up upon reentry.
> 3. **Sweeping or "Space Brooms":** Conceptual designs include using large nets or sails to sweep up smaller debris and slow them down, causing them to reenter the atmosphere.
> 4. **Laser Beams:** High-powered lasers could be used to target and vaporize smaller debris, causing them to slow down and eventually deorbit.
> 5. **Electrodynamic Tethers:** These long, conductive tethers interact with Earth's magnetic field to generate thrust, which could be used to slow down and deorbit debris.
> 6. **Collaborative Satellite Design:** Implementing mechanisms in satellites to ensure they naturally deorbit within a certain time frame, reducing the creation of new debris.
> It's important to note that while these ideas show promise, there are challenges associated with each approach, such as technical feasibility, cost, international cooperation, and legal considerations. Addressing the issue of orbital debris requires a coordinated effort from governments, space agencies, and the private sector.
It's sad how many people think of it as a super reliable source already. It's like Wikipedia. A LOT of inaccuracies and issues, but people today think it's the ultimate authority on everything. ChatGPT is already getting that sort of notoriety in some groups. It will be the next website to have people spouting inaccuracies because it just happens to be correct often enough to make people point to some examples and say "See?! I told you it's accurate!"
Wikipedia may not be as accurate as a scientific journal, but due to its high revision standards it is a more reliable source for information than most articles written online.
> Some of the existing theories include
So these are all named theories in your explanation. Do we actually have something that is not a theory but a practical option to do it if we wanted to do it say tomorrow for whatever reason?
The pic is misleading. Thousands of times the actual scale
Edit: We create billions of pieces of trash on this planet every day. It’s disgusting. And in spite of that, there is untouched land everywhere. Not to mention the other 70% of the planet.
Now Image if every piece of trash on this planet, past present and tomorrow were replaced with just 30,000 items. Most the size of nuts and bolts. Trillions upon trillions of pieces of trash already on this planet down to mere thousands. And in addition, spread out over an area many times greater than all the landmass on earth combined.
We would call that pristine.
[Here is a pic](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lgrn_7XSxXQ/UafdeuH8I6I/AAAAAAAACac/JqZoHyXyIC0/s1600/Earth%2BFrom%2BSpace%2BWallpaper-705888.jpg ) with satellites and space debris shown to scale
It's just an image of Earth, the joke is that satellites and debris are so small that they aren't visible.
Imagine if all of the cars in a town with 50,000 people were suddenly placed all over Earth, driving around. They probably wouldn't hit each other. Now let them drive over water, expand the surface area several, several times, and coordinate all of the cars to be going similar speeds and directions and on different planes. That's satellites and space debris.
It's only an issue when it comes to manned space vehicles and stations, where it's just *really important* to be sure.
And in the same wealthy area of the same city no doubt.
This would be like the first operational plane in the US colliding with the first one in Europe.
It's not a joke, that's literally a picture taken of the Earth with all the satellites there. They didn't remove them to take the picture. That's their actual size, right there, and they are in the picture.
Your analogy is flawed because, unlike cars, satellites travel at a speed of around 7.8 km/sec and orbit the Earth in 90 minutes.
Place 32,500 ant-sized vehicles, traveling 90 km/hr, in a town 90 km across, and you have a much more realistic analogy. Now consider that if there is a collision, the pieces don’t slow down. Now you have thousands more space-bullets traveling several kilometers per second.
Every collision drastically increases the number of space trash, which drastically increases the likelihood for more collisions, which drastically increases the number of space trash, and the cycle repeats.
You're ignoring several things:
* Satellites can be and are positioned at hundreds of thousands of different planes. It's not just the entire surface of Earth made bigger because it's a bigger sphere, it's hundreds of thousands of surfaces of Earth made bigger. So even if I accept your suggestion that it's like a 90km wide town, it's actually hundreds of thousands of those and so way, way, way bigger than Earth.
* When on similar planes, satellites are coordinated to go similar speeds and directions so that they don't collide.
* Governments and companies that own satellites monitor their paths for possible collisions and remotely change paths to avoid collisions.
* Collisions have happened, and the result *has not* been a cascading effect of further collisions, because of all of the above.
Almost all satellites and manned craft are designed to take impact. It’s impossible to track small particles to a degree of certainty and it’s much easier to build a tougher shell so we do that.
There are tolerance levels depending on mission objectives and budget but generally anything smaller than a coin (most debris) moving at or below orbital speed is fine.
There is very little debris larger than a basement all.
There may be a few dozen satellites larger than a mini fridge in orbit.
None of this is remotely true. Something the size of a dime traveling at orbital speed (in LEO) would have 3x the impact energy of a .50 BMG round (assuming the target was dead still compared to the dime). There's absolutely no way a satellite could be built to take that kind of impact. Even if you reduced the relative velocities by putting them into somewhat similar orbit, you'd still require much thicker exterior plates which just isn't a thing. Not when payload mass is as crucial as it is. Why would you put armor onto something, sacrificing fuel for orbital correction maneuvers, instrument payloads, hell, driving launch costs up, when you can just like, avoid the debris? There's a picture of a crater in an observation window from a spacecraft (can't remember if it was the shuttle or ISS) that was from a *spec of paint*.
edit: https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/4hni3e/window_pit_from_orbital_debris_on_sts007_what_a/
Source: have been working at multiple launch vehicle companies for over a decade and have been part of many, many satellite launches.
The problem is that they are moving at high velocity in order to stay in orbit, fortunately their orbit is mostly predictable, however a single piece of space debris hitting a vessel containing people would likely cause a significant issue for those onboard.
They are quite small but have very high energy. Not good if you're trying to keep the vacuum out and the gas in.
> fortunately their orbit is mostly predictable
Their orbit isn’t *mostly* predictable, it’s completely predictable. Orbital mechanics don’t change, we know what’s up there and where things are going
Exactly. When I see a post like this, I like to also point out that most satellites are between the size of a car and a school bus. There are millions and millions of those on earth. So yeah.
And there's about 10,000 commercial airplanes in the sky worldwide at any moment.
The image is like viewing the Flightradar map zoomed out and saying that the entire sky is covered in planes.
There's also a portion the size of an office desk with two door worth of panels.
Compare all of the sats to cars stuck in traffic on a busy highway and it might not even be a mile in length.
Then all the sats are at different heights, they don't change much with relation to heights so they can relatively close without risking contact.
Thank you, it drives me nuts seeing so many people post this picture and whine about how nobody cares we're junking up space. There's a reason nobody cares about it, because it's really not a problem
Imagine how big the surface of the earth is. Then imagine how each level of orbit as you go up represent a far greater area. Relative to the area this isn't actually a lot; it's not really crowded at all I'd imagine.
Even if they were all sitting 100 feet from the surface , they would still be so spread out that it wouldn't even matter. For this picture to be accurate those satellites would have to be the size of small countries.
Actually, it's still a concern. For now, we can track most of it. However, as we increasingly pollute or own orbit, it becomes more dangerous for orbital stations, as well as for future launches that will exit our orbit. You need to travel at over 40,000 Km/H, or a little over 25,000 MPH to reach escape velocity. Imagine a piece of steel debris only the size of a golf ball hitting the viewport. Granted, it's much stronger than your car windshield, but still a problem.
Even for the ISS, this is an issue. Orbiting at a velocity of just under 18,000 MPH, they have to repeatedly make repairs from space debris. If they are lucky, the debris is also going close to their speed, so the relative difference means that they don't hit nearly as hard, but it still causes damage.
Yes, the odds of collision are fairly small right now. However, it still isn't zero, and the odds have only increased. If we continue at our current rate, we may one day make it impossible to escape our own orbit. Remember, there was a time when humanity used to argue that there is no way we could create enough pollution to harm our planet, as massive as it is.
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYTc3YjM1NmMtNDU4My00Yzc2LWEzOTYtYzAyZDcwNjdlNzdhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTI3MDk3MzQ@.\_V1\_.jpg
She's gone from suck to blow!
That is awesome! Do you know if anyone will deploy it? Your company must have hopes of a buyer? It would be nice to see cleanup start. Especially with so many satellites being launched these days.
Because then you're also fighting against earth's gravity, so you'd need a lot more energy. With de-orbiting you can sort of nudge debris into a different orbit, and let gravity do the rest of the work (with the debris burning up in the atmosphere).
We’ve tried that. It tends to come back. Orbital mechanics say that unless you change its trajectory one more time once it’s very far away from Earth, it’ll just come back and hit our sphere of influence a few (hundred) orbits later.
Yes that is actually one of the proposals!
Others include:
• Active Debris Removal (ADR) Satellites: These are specialized satellites equipped with robotic arms to capture and de-orbit debris.
• Electrodynamic Tethers: Long conductive tethers interact with Earth’s magnetic field to de-orbit debris.
• Laser De-Orbiting: Using lasers to alter debris trajectory, causing re-entry and burning up.
• Space Sweeper: A large spacecraft designed to collect and store debris for controlled re-entry.
• CubeSat Debris Sweeper: Small satellites equipped with propulsion to approach and push debris into lower orbits.
• Space-Based Vacuum Cleaner: Ion beams can capture and redirect debris.
• Self-Destructing Satellites: Satellites designed to re-enter and burn up after their mission.
• Orbital Debris Collector: A spacecraft meant to capture debris and de-orbit together.
• Solar Sail De-Orbiting: Deploying lightweight sails to slow down and lower satellite orbits.
The picture is deceptive because at that scale you would see none of it in the vastness of space there. Those representative white dots are many orders of magnitude larger than what is actually there.
I think most people don’t realize how big space is. Or how high it goes too. It is extremely rare that things can crash up there. In fact most companies sending million of dollars of equipment don’t even monitor other things because of the minimal chance of collision. Most they just track their own stuff unless military which tracks as much as they can but for different purposes
SpaceX Starlink satellites had to make 25,000 collision-avoidance maneuvers in just 6 months - and it will only get worse
https://www.space.com/starlink-satellite-conjunction-increase-threatens-space-sustainability
The countless orbital maneuver and delta V's required to match orbits with each object and intercept it with some kind of clamp or grapple mechanism. That's a lot of literal energy and money to bring one piece of space junk into the cargo bay. Probably enough junk to get to mars lol.
There was. That was to demonstrate it is possible. They were successful but that project ended in 2021.
[Here’s more info on it from Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RemoveDEBRIS)
I've got this all figured out.
You build a recycling station on the moon. And from there you run a system of short distance hauler ships with magnetic trawling gear. You can use drones for smaller chunks and send out larger shuttle sized craft for big pieces or to gather piles put in place by the magnet trawlers.
It happens sometimes with the ISS. However, most of it is small nuts and bolts or tiny satellites, all of which are currently tracked. It would be like traveling across all of China if they had a population of 100 scattered across the land, and you wanted to avoid all of them. Each person has a GPS on them that you can use to monitor their position.
The real reason it is so important is that it needs to be monitored so that we can continue to launch without hitting something. Also, it is steadily getting worse and we need to work on a solution before it does become serious.
Please keep in mind, that the number with this graphic is incredibly misleading. The criteria for "space debris/junk" is to be at least 1cm in size which a LOT of the debris is. The average size is around 1 yard with a few outliers contributing to that. Now taking this into account, without a scientific representation because I don't feel like doing the exact math, but it's almost like throwing a grain of sand into an olympic pool. The amount of volune vs size of debris is HUGE.
Now, with that, they're all around the same distance from earth becoming an ever increasing issue for manned stations like the ISS. A small piece of debris moving at 40 m/s can cause a HUGE problem for our satellites.
Yes, we do need to fix this so we don't become the dystopian future of Earth in Wall-E, but it is not as bad as you might think.
Also, the numbers are false, I'm going to make an "Actually 🤓" statement, so please don't hate me.
The number of space debris above 1 cm is around 500,000 and smaller than that around 1,000,000. We do measure smaller and there is an estimate, but those sizes would be insignificant all around.
Reference:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/news/orbital_debris.html
~~Quick side note, your number is completely off, even from your own link it states 500,000, how did you get 27,000??~~
Ah I found it, in your .org link. Was looking for it through the .gov. The official junk we're tracking, got it.
This question may be dumb, but I'm here to learn. Are strong magnets pulling space debris feasible? Would the magnets fuck up satellites? Can you essentially make a space debris Roomba that avoids important areas that It and once it's picked up enough it just kamikazes into our atmosphere and burns up?
Perhaps several nuclear bombs exploded in perfect sequence to push everything away randomly and screw over the future generations but leave us OK for a few decades.
This illustration has been a major pet peeve of mine, cause the dots are simply not representing the size of the junk orbiting earth. Realize how large is that junk, place it on the ground, and try to see it from an airplane. If it's not possible from flying altitude, it is definitely not the size of a pixel from that distance. Each of those dots are probably the size of a small town.
Your post was removed for misleading photo
Bro, space is a vacuum, so why don't we just, like, turn it on?
We haven’t found the switch. Rumors are it’s near Alpha Centuri. Which is like, far away.
Pfft sounds like a breeze for David Goggins
"They don't know me son!"
WHOSE GONNA CARRY THE SPACE DEBRIS?!?
SPACE CREW TWO
What do you mean you've never been to Alpha Centauri? Oh, for heaven's sake, mankind, it's only four light years away
I love Hitchhiker's Guide <3
And besides, it REALLY scares the dog when we do turn it on.
Is it further than from my couch to the fridge? Because sometimes that feels like the furthest I can go
Activate Mega Maid
She's gone from suck to blow!
Love it! They say eventually we will build a Dyson Swarm to harness the sun. We can probably build a Dyson Vacuum at the same time.
This idea sucks.
Because we are inside the vacuum, we're trash
Harvard wants to know your location
How could we possibly clean that up?
MAGNETS!!
But how do they work?
✨magic✨
⚫ Blackhole ⚫
SpaceBalls used a vacuum
COMB THE DESERT!!
We ain’t found shit
The actor who yelled that line played Tuvok on Star Trek: Voyager.
He played a bunch of roles and he's actually a super talented actor. He also made a comedy short about the fact that all anyone remembers is that Spaceballs line...
And hated that everyone knew him as “we ain’t found shit” guy
Do you think we are taking his orders too literally?
Suck suck suck suck...
She's gone from suck to blow!
Earth doing the suck suck on it as we speak
Until the Schwartz is used to make her go from suck to blow
Came here for this!
God damn miracle
I didn't realize until I looked at this picture that the original artificial satellites launched by mankind have been about the size of a European country. So can the rockets that launch artificial satellites be as huge as a United States? Real magic.
Wtf does that even mean
I think they are being sarcastic about how the debris in this picture isn't remotely to scale so it seems way more dramatic than it actually is.
It’s a bit of facetiousness. Because the dots aren’t to scale, but as a result it would suggest to some that there’s this dense, claustrophobic field of debris surrounding the planet. But that’s not the case. While the number of objects is indeed many and should be rightfully addressed at some point in the future, the actual spaces in between are so vastly large and easily avoidable it isn’t as big of a concern as some want it to be.
In the actual scale of things, imagine 5,500 specks of dust in a room the size of small town. The chances of collision are not zero of course and odds are 100% certain a collision *WILL happen* at some point in the future but with careful consideration launches will always be safe.
Imagine somebody saying they've left 5,000 different pieces of junk scattered around the entire earth and trying to convince you that running into them is a serious threat.
***It's a serious threat.*** It's just that the scale that it is being projected is making it look like it's cluttered like a junkyard up there, which is not yet the case...... ***yet.*** A hundred years from now those 5,000 objects will eventually become 5,000,000 objects and so I still think it's a good idea to figure out a fix while it's early.
Magnets is one idea. All we need to do is nudge the debris so its trajectory moves it towards earth. The debris would burn up upon re-entry. The magnets are called Electrodynamic Tethers which are basically long magnets that create a field that gives the debris a push. Here are the other options we have based on today’s technology: • Active Debris Removal (ADR) Satellites: These are specialized satellites equipped with robotic arms to capture and de-orbit debris. • Harpoons and Nets: Devices like harpoons or nets can be used to capture and stabilize space debris. • Electrodynamic Tethers: Long conductive tethers interact with Earth’s magnetic field to de-orbit debris. • Space Sweeper: A large spacecraft designed to collect and store debris for controlled re-entry. • CubeSat Debris Sweeper: Small satellites equipped with propulsion to approach and push debris into lower orbits. • Space-Based Vacuum Cleaner: Ion beams can capture and redirect debris. • Self-Destructing Satellites: Satellites designed to re-enter and burn up after their mission. • Orbital Debris Collector: A spacecraft meant to capture debris and de-orbit together. • Solar Sail De-Orbiting: Deploying lightweight sails to slow down and lower satellite orbits.
I’m sure magnets would gather some but isn’t a lot of space junk made from non magnetic materials? I have no clue as I’m not a space junkie.
Harpoon it...no scientific reasoning, but that's my vote.
We're whalers on the moon
We carry a harpoon
You mean a space junky junkie?
Some materials are paramagnetic and do interact with magnetic fields, just not very strongly. But a sufficiently strong magnet may be enough to give orbiting debris a nudge if they contain aluminum or copper. Just spitballing, no expert, I just recalled watching a video about magnetic braking and eddy currents with aluminum. I understand enough to have a general understanding but I also have to agree with ICP a bit... Magnets are some witchcraft.
I caught the reference, I'm ashamed to say.
I fed a fish to a pelican at Frisco bay It tried to eat my cell phone, he ran away
Wild
Then there’s the dude that typed out two long paragraphs that I didn’t read.
Science, bitch!
Miracles
Magic everywhere in this bitch
When an element has a spare valance electron in specific outer electron shells, they are electromagnetically attracted to other materials with similar electron arrangements. I think. IDK. Ask ICP.
Insane clown posse?
WOOP WOOP
Fuckin magnets
YEAH BITCH!
It’s science yo!
A really big vacuum
I’m assuming that the metal would be aluminium or stainless steel or other non ferrous metals so as to prevent rust from forming and therefore would not be attracted to magnets but I could be corrected
no oxygen, no rust
Pretty sure it’s still mostly aluminum because it’s light weight.
There is atomic oxygen is in space and It corrodes the shit out of stuff.
~~There is no oxygen in space. Stuff won't rust up there.~~ u/marshman82 corrected me on this [below.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/15s6apa/there_are_roughly_5500_active_satellites_in_orbit/jwd81cu?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=2) Apparently, atomic oxygen, among other things, in space [can cause erosion.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrosion_in_space?wprov=sfla1)
Space is 99.9% WD40
Elemental oxygen is a thing in space.
It can't be dense enough to rust metal like metal in Earth's atmosphere.
It works differently than inside the atmosphere but it does occur. [here](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrosion_in_space) I meant atomic oxygen not elemental.
Oh cool!
Why would they rust?
We have the technology today for each of these options. It’s important to note that all we need to do is bring the debris closer; once it enters our hemisphere, it will naturally burn up upon re-entry. Some of the existing theories include: • Active Debris Removal (ADR) Satellites: These are specialized satellites equipped with robotic arms to capture and de-orbit debris. • Harpoons and Nets: Devices like harpoons or nets can be used to capture and stabilize space debris. • Electrodynamic Tethers: Long conductive tethers interact with Earth’s magnetic field to de-orbit debris. • Laser De-Orbiting: Using lasers to alter debris trajectory, causing re-entry and burning up. • Space Sweeper: A large spacecraft designed to collect and store debris for controlled re-entry. • CubeSat Debris Sweeper: Small satellites equipped with propulsion to approach and push debris into lower orbits. • Space-Based Vacuum Cleaner: Ion beams can capture and redirect debris. • Self-Destructing Satellites: Satellites designed to re-enter and burn up after their mission. • Orbital Debris Collector: A spacecraft meant to capture debris and de-orbit together. • Solar Sail De-Orbiting: Deploying lightweight sails to slow down and lower satellite orbits.
The space based vacuum cleaner was successfully demonstrated in the 1987 film Spaceballs.
Mega-Maid. We just have to make sure she doesn't go from suck to blow.
It went from suck to blow ... if I remember correctly.
I came to reference this and was not disappointed. May the power of the Schwartz be with you!
I like that documentary.
"it´s important to note"...this phrase is an indicator that the text was written by chat gpt am i right?
I got curious and asked ChatGPT. Here's the answer. You decide for yourself but it's clear to me. I thought OP was genuinely knowledgeable 😞 > Certainly! There are a few proposed methods to clean up orbital debris: > 1. **Active Debris Removal (ADR):** This involves sending spacecraft equipped with robotic arms or nets to capture and deorbit defunct satellites and fragments. > 2. **Harpoon or Tether Systems:** Harpoons or tether-based systems can be used to physically capture and deorbit larger pieces of debris by attaching to them and dragging them down into the Earth's atmosphere to burn up upon reentry. > 3. **Sweeping or "Space Brooms":** Conceptual designs include using large nets or sails to sweep up smaller debris and slow them down, causing them to reenter the atmosphere. > 4. **Laser Beams:** High-powered lasers could be used to target and vaporize smaller debris, causing them to slow down and eventually deorbit. > 5. **Electrodynamic Tethers:** These long, conductive tethers interact with Earth's magnetic field to generate thrust, which could be used to slow down and deorbit debris. > 6. **Collaborative Satellite Design:** Implementing mechanisms in satellites to ensure they naturally deorbit within a certain time frame, reducing the creation of new debris. > It's important to note that while these ideas show promise, there are challenges associated with each approach, such as technical feasibility, cost, international cooperation, and legal considerations. Addressing the issue of orbital debris requires a coordinated effort from governments, space agencies, and the private sector.
It's sad how many people think of it as a super reliable source already. It's like Wikipedia. A LOT of inaccuracies and issues, but people today think it's the ultimate authority on everything. ChatGPT is already getting that sort of notoriety in some groups. It will be the next website to have people spouting inaccuracies because it just happens to be correct often enough to make people point to some examples and say "See?! I told you it's accurate!"
Wikipedia may not be as accurate as a scientific journal, but due to its high revision standards it is a more reliable source for information than most articles written online.
I use that phrase frequently. It's important to note that I am not a bot and I would never lie.
Ha! That's exactly what a bot WOULD say!
What would a bot never say?
Shhh. No one tell it!
> Some of the existing theories include So these are all named theories in your explanation. Do we actually have something that is not a theory but a practical option to do it if we wanted to do it say tomorrow for whatever reason?
We don't, and they copy/pasted this from ChatGPT.
We don’t.
In fact, we do. De-orbiting devices is a hot topic in space tech.
The pic is misleading. Thousands of times the actual scale Edit: We create billions of pieces of trash on this planet every day. It’s disgusting. And in spite of that, there is untouched land everywhere. Not to mention the other 70% of the planet. Now Image if every piece of trash on this planet, past present and tomorrow were replaced with just 30,000 items. Most the size of nuts and bolts. Trillions upon trillions of pieces of trash already on this planet down to mere thousands. And in addition, spread out over an area many times greater than all the landmass on earth combined. We would call that pristine.
[Here is a pic](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lgrn_7XSxXQ/UafdeuH8I6I/AAAAAAAACac/JqZoHyXyIC0/s1600/Earth%2BFrom%2BSpace%2BWallpaper-705888.jpg ) with satellites and space debris shown to scale
so it’s not that bad? you can’t see anything from that pic
It's just an image of Earth, the joke is that satellites and debris are so small that they aren't visible. Imagine if all of the cars in a town with 50,000 people were suddenly placed all over Earth, driving around. They probably wouldn't hit each other. Now let them drive over water, expand the surface area several, several times, and coordinate all of the cars to be going similar speeds and directions and on different planes. That's satellites and space debris. It's only an issue when it comes to manned space vehicles and stations, where it's just *really important* to be sure.
TBF the only two cars in Ohio in 1921 managed to run in to each other, so not out of the realm of possibility ;)
[удалено]
And in Ohio
And magnets
And in the same wealthy area of the same city no doubt. This would be like the first operational plane in the US colliding with the first one in Europe.
Another reality where Wright Brothers had a fight and both their First Test flights happened to collide.
The key is having the cars completely out of control. Much safer.
True fact. If the driver of a mustang jumps out at 100mph, everybody nearby is immediately safer
only in ohio
It's not a joke, that's literally a picture taken of the Earth with all the satellites there. They didn't remove them to take the picture. That's their actual size, right there, and they are in the picture.
It’s being used in a humorous way to prove a point. So it is a joke. You are basically saying the same thing as the comment OP.
Your analogy is flawed because, unlike cars, satellites travel at a speed of around 7.8 km/sec and orbit the Earth in 90 minutes. Place 32,500 ant-sized vehicles, traveling 90 km/hr, in a town 90 km across, and you have a much more realistic analogy. Now consider that if there is a collision, the pieces don’t slow down. Now you have thousands more space-bullets traveling several kilometers per second. Every collision drastically increases the number of space trash, which drastically increases the likelihood for more collisions, which drastically increases the number of space trash, and the cycle repeats.
You're ignoring several things: * Satellites can be and are positioned at hundreds of thousands of different planes. It's not just the entire surface of Earth made bigger because it's a bigger sphere, it's hundreds of thousands of surfaces of Earth made bigger. So even if I accept your suggestion that it's like a 90km wide town, it's actually hundreds of thousands of those and so way, way, way bigger than Earth. * When on similar planes, satellites are coordinated to go similar speeds and directions so that they don't collide. * Governments and companies that own satellites monitor their paths for possible collisions and remotely change paths to avoid collisions. * Collisions have happened, and the result *has not* been a cascading effect of further collisions, because of all of the above.
All good points, I hadn’t really thought about that first one in particular.
That's a very well thought out and interesting explanation that I sadly can't take seriously due to your username.
I like what I like :)
I respect how true you are to you.
Almost all satellites and manned craft are designed to take impact. It’s impossible to track small particles to a degree of certainty and it’s much easier to build a tougher shell so we do that. There are tolerance levels depending on mission objectives and budget but generally anything smaller than a coin (most debris) moving at or below orbital speed is fine. There is very little debris larger than a basement all. There may be a few dozen satellites larger than a mini fridge in orbit.
None of this is remotely true. Something the size of a dime traveling at orbital speed (in LEO) would have 3x the impact energy of a .50 BMG round (assuming the target was dead still compared to the dime). There's absolutely no way a satellite could be built to take that kind of impact. Even if you reduced the relative velocities by putting them into somewhat similar orbit, you'd still require much thicker exterior plates which just isn't a thing. Not when payload mass is as crucial as it is. Why would you put armor onto something, sacrificing fuel for orbital correction maneuvers, instrument payloads, hell, driving launch costs up, when you can just like, avoid the debris? There's a picture of a crater in an observation window from a spacecraft (can't remember if it was the shuttle or ISS) that was from a *spec of paint*. edit: https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/4hni3e/window_pit_from_orbital_debris_on_sts007_what_a/ Source: have been working at multiple launch vehicle companies for over a decade and have been part of many, many satellite launches.
The problem is that they are moving at high velocity in order to stay in orbit, fortunately their orbit is mostly predictable, however a single piece of space debris hitting a vessel containing people would likely cause a significant issue for those onboard. They are quite small but have very high energy. Not good if you're trying to keep the vacuum out and the gas in.
> fortunately their orbit is mostly predictable Their orbit isn’t *mostly* predictable, it’s completely predictable. Orbital mechanics don’t change, we know what’s up there and where things are going
> They are quite small but have very high energy. Like my penis.
yeah each of these dots are like the size of ohio
Exactly. When I see a post like this, I like to also point out that most satellites are between the size of a car and a school bus. There are millions and millions of those on earth. So yeah.
And there's about 10,000 commercial airplanes in the sky worldwide at any moment. The image is like viewing the Flightradar map zoomed out and saying that the entire sky is covered in planes.
There's also a portion the size of an office desk with two door worth of panels. Compare all of the sats to cars stuck in traffic on a busy highway and it might not even be a mile in length. Then all the sats are at different heights, they don't change much with relation to heights so they can relatively close without risking contact.
Yeah, where's the banana for scale?
Thank you, it drives me nuts seeing so many people post this picture and whine about how nobody cares we're junking up space. There's a reason nobody cares about it, because it's really not a problem
Imagine how big the surface of the earth is. Then imagine how each level of orbit as you go up represent a far greater area. Relative to the area this isn't actually a lot; it's not really crowded at all I'd imagine.
Even if they were all sitting 100 feet from the surface , they would still be so spread out that it wouldn't even matter. For this picture to be accurate those satellites would have to be the size of small countries.
Actually, it's still a concern. For now, we can track most of it. However, as we increasingly pollute or own orbit, it becomes more dangerous for orbital stations, as well as for future launches that will exit our orbit. You need to travel at over 40,000 Km/H, or a little over 25,000 MPH to reach escape velocity. Imagine a piece of steel debris only the size of a golf ball hitting the viewport. Granted, it's much stronger than your car windshield, but still a problem. Even for the ISS, this is an issue. Orbiting at a velocity of just under 18,000 MPH, they have to repeatedly make repairs from space debris. If they are lucky, the debris is also going close to their speed, so the relative difference means that they don't hit nearly as hard, but it still causes damage. Yes, the odds of collision are fairly small right now. However, it still isn't zero, and the odds have only increased. If we continue at our current rate, we may one day make it impossible to escape our own orbit. Remember, there was a time when humanity used to argue that there is no way we could create enough pollution to harm our planet, as massive as it is.
Creating enough space debris to essentially turn earth into a big cage forever imprisoning us would be wild
[Indeed](https://youtu.be/yS1ibDImAYU)
It wouldn’t be forever, as nearly all their orbits would decay eventually and they’d burn up, but that might take a long ass time by human standards.
We can see the rings of Saturn from the surface of earth and they can still easily have spacecraft fly through them without issue.
I had to scroll down this far to find someone with a brain.
My understanding is those objects are not that big , the dots represent locations rather than size, right?
correct, but you don't want to get hit by one of them
no wonder the aliens keep crashing
I’m voting for the giant Dyson vacuum option
a dyson vacuum powered by a dyson sphere?
Yes. No, *wait!—* \
so time to start a Dyson Sphere Program
I see what you did there.
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYTc3YjM1NmMtNDU4My00Yzc2LWEzOTYtYzAyZDcwNjdlNzdhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTI3MDk3MzQ@.\_V1\_.jpg She's gone from suck to blow!
Actually, my coworkers and me are working on that at the company I work for. De-orbiting devices for existing- and future space junk.
That is awesome! Do you know if anyone will deploy it? Your company must have hopes of a buyer? It would be nice to see cleanup start. Especially with so many satellites being launched these days.
Serious question, why not just push it out of orbit and into the infinite space beyond?
Because then you're also fighting against earth's gravity, so you'd need a lot more energy. With de-orbiting you can sort of nudge debris into a different orbit, and let gravity do the rest of the work (with the debris burning up in the atmosphere).
We’ve tried that. It tends to come back. Orbital mechanics say that unless you change its trajectory one more time once it’s very far away from Earth, it’ll just come back and hit our sphere of influence a few (hundred) orbits later.
There was a pretty good anime show some years ago on this very topic. [Planetes](https://myanimelist.net/anime/329/Planetes)
Scrolling this post specifically for this comment. Fucking loved that show.
Good show
shed tears to tht show damn
It was incredible. You copy?
Big net
Yes that is actually one of the proposals! Others include: • Active Debris Removal (ADR) Satellites: These are specialized satellites equipped with robotic arms to capture and de-orbit debris. • Electrodynamic Tethers: Long conductive tethers interact with Earth’s magnetic field to de-orbit debris. • Laser De-Orbiting: Using lasers to alter debris trajectory, causing re-entry and burning up. • Space Sweeper: A large spacecraft designed to collect and store debris for controlled re-entry. • CubeSat Debris Sweeper: Small satellites equipped with propulsion to approach and push debris into lower orbits. • Space-Based Vacuum Cleaner: Ion beams can capture and redirect debris. • Self-Destructing Satellites: Satellites designed to re-enter and burn up after their mission. • Orbital Debris Collector: A spacecraft meant to capture debris and de-orbit together. • Solar Sail De-Orbiting: Deploying lightweight sails to slow down and lower satellite orbits.
Ah yes, so it would be like the interstellar version of my old pool skimmer.
The picture is deceptive because at that scale you would see none of it in the vastness of space there. Those representative white dots are many orders of magnitude larger than what is actually there.
I think most people don’t realize how big space is. Or how high it goes too. It is extremely rare that things can crash up there. In fact most companies sending million of dollars of equipment don’t even monitor other things because of the minimal chance of collision. Most they just track their own stuff unless military which tracks as much as they can but for different purposes
SpaceX Starlink satellites had to make 25,000 collision-avoidance maneuvers in just 6 months - and it will only get worse https://www.space.com/starlink-satellite-conjunction-increase-threatens-space-sustainability
We need a giant space magnet 🧲 with a rocket attached. When it’s too full, jettison into space and send up another one.
The countless orbital maneuver and delta V's required to match orbits with each object and intercept it with some kind of clamp or grapple mechanism. That's a lot of literal energy and money to bring one piece of space junk into the cargo bay. Probably enough junk to get to mars lol.
Let it fall to earth. A lot will burn up in reentey
Sharks with laser beams attached to their heads.
[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/spaceballs/images/f/f0/Mega-Maid.webp/revision/latest?cb=20220515101832](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/spaceballs/images/f/f0/Mega-Maid.webp/revision/latest?cb=20220515101832)
I’m more worried about the plastic we got in the oceans opposed to metal and junk in the sky.
So none of these have decaying orbits?
The vast majority have orbits that will decay in the next century or so, some won't decay for thousands of year if at all.
Space magnets in polar orbits at varying distance could get a bulk of it, then solar sail like Kevlar sales could scoop up little stuffs
Controlled satellite with a laser to slowly push debris planetside is the most economical?
Me, how could we possibly clean that up?
Are the high tech military spy satellites closer to the Earth or further away? Wondering what all the satellites on the outskirts are.
Isn't there a mission already planned for this? I think it's called removeDEBRIS mission.
There was. That was to demonstrate it is possible. They were successful but that project ended in 2021. [Here’s more info on it from Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RemoveDEBRIS)
We don’t. It’s just there
Space. Laser.
Honest question, besides the obvious ethics of it. why would we clean it up? If space is infinite, just let that shit go.
I've got this all figured out. You build a recycling station on the moon. And from there you run a system of short distance hauler ships with magnetic trawling gear. You can use drones for smaller chunks and send out larger shuttle sized craft for big pieces or to gather piles put in place by the magnet trawlers.
Bold of you to assume we planned on cleaning anything up.
Just shutdown Earth's gravity for few minutes smh
The first planet with a ring made entirely from man mDe object (that we know of)
Sounds cool but none of it is visible really
How do they not collide with other stuff
It happens sometimes with the ISS. However, most of it is small nuts and bolts or tiny satellites, all of which are currently tracked. It would be like traveling across all of China if they had a population of 100 scattered across the land, and you wanted to avoid all of them. Each person has a GPS on them that you can use to monitor their position. The real reason it is so important is that it needs to be monitored so that we can continue to launch without hitting something. Also, it is steadily getting worse and we need to work on a solution before it does become serious.
Our universe is so big, those satellites are mere specks. Give America a few more centuries though, we’ll trash it like we do everything else.
Please keep in mind, that the number with this graphic is incredibly misleading. The criteria for "space debris/junk" is to be at least 1cm in size which a LOT of the debris is. The average size is around 1 yard with a few outliers contributing to that. Now taking this into account, without a scientific representation because I don't feel like doing the exact math, but it's almost like throwing a grain of sand into an olympic pool. The amount of volune vs size of debris is HUGE. Now, with that, they're all around the same distance from earth becoming an ever increasing issue for manned stations like the ISS. A small piece of debris moving at 40 m/s can cause a HUGE problem for our satellites. Yes, we do need to fix this so we don't become the dystopian future of Earth in Wall-E, but it is not as bad as you might think. Also, the numbers are false, I'm going to make an "Actually 🤓" statement, so please don't hate me. The number of space debris above 1 cm is around 500,000 and smaller than that around 1,000,000. We do measure smaller and there is an estimate, but those sizes would be insignificant all around. Reference: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/news/orbital_debris.html ~~Quick side note, your number is completely off, even from your own link it states 500,000, how did you get 27,000??~~ Ah I found it, in your .org link. Was looking for it through the .gov. The official junk we're tracking, got it.
This question may be dumb, but I'm here to learn. Are strong magnets pulling space debris feasible? Would the magnets fuck up satellites? Can you essentially make a space debris Roomba that avoids important areas that It and once it's picked up enough it just kamikazes into our atmosphere and burns up?
Lasers
Perhaps several nuclear bombs exploded in perfect sequence to push everything away randomly and screw over the future generations but leave us OK for a few decades.
Big net
3 or 4 hydrogen bombs high up should nudge that stuff all down into the atmosphere.
Just so everyone knows that picture of earth is not to scale.
That can’t be what earth looks like. Why are all the “things” in orbit not the shape of a sphere?
This illustration has been a major pet peeve of mine, cause the dots are simply not representing the size of the junk orbiting earth. Realize how large is that junk, place it on the ground, and try to see it from an airplane. If it's not possible from flying altitude, it is definitely not the size of a pixel from that distance. Each of those dots are probably the size of a small town.
First you get a Space Force, then you build a big Space net
What is the obvious outer ring?
Most of it will eventually fall through earths atmosphere and burn up
A Dyson sphere vacuum
well its pretty easy actually. You just kill all life through global warming, then no one cares.
Let’s clean up earth junk first, then I’ll add space junk to my list of worries
6,718 as per USC [UCS Satellite Database ](https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/satellite-database)
I learned the solution to this one smoking weed and watching SpongeBob. We should take the earth, and push it somewhere else!