Japan plans space debris fishing trip The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has a cunning plan to tackle the menace of orbiting space debris - a really big metal net. According to the Telegraph, the agency has hooked up with fishing net manufacturer Nitto Seimo Co to develop a metal mesh which will capture rogue scrap and consign it to incineration in the …
Once the launch vehicle gets to its proper obit, the whole payload section will come apart to let the satellite finish it journey, when this happens. The nose cone and the outer payload section are supposed to fall back to earth, burning up in the atmosphere, however there are a lot of times when this doesn't happen, so you end up with metal plates, screws, and parts of the holding assembly floating around in lower orbit.
From Article: "of which a dozen could in seven years capture all 2,465 identified objects over 2 kilograms currently floating in low Earth orbit."
All 2465 objects includes 95% debris and 5% operational satelites...
So this is going to collect all the satelites too? if not how does it tell the difference and pass them by, or do you have to move all the sats as the net comes sweeping past?
1. The problem with orbital debris is the damage it does because of how fast it is travelling compared to the object it hits (think of something travelling north-south at ~26,170 mph and somthing travelling east-west at the same speed). So what happens to this net when it is hit by something at that speed?
2. The other problem with orbital debris is that it hits things that we want to stay up (satellites, space stations, shuttles, etc.). So what stops this kilometer sized piece of orbital debris doing the same? (OK I know the answer is to change the orbit of your sat, but that uses fuel, reducing it's life, and meaning that all the measurements it takes afterwards for a while are no good).
However, I'm generally OK with someone doing something to sort it.
I really hope those Japanese boffins think of those two points....or perhaps, just perhaps, they already have done, since if a bunch of RegTards could think of them within 5 minutes, perhaps the Japanese experts already have done. Would that be why they are called boffins, and we are RegTards?
Catching other satellites would probably be a problem, and I can't see any way to avoid it short of making all active satellites dodge the net. That uses up fuel, reducing the satellite's useful life.
However, being hit by space debris also reduces the satellite's useful life. At *some* point, the cost of accidents will become greater than the cost of moving active satellites. There will be arguing, but the problem will just grow until everyone agrees it needs fixing. When that happens, it would be nice to have the space sweeper ready for action.
I'm clearly not understanding this properly. When a football hits the back of the net, the fast moving ball pulls the net in the direction of travel. The net is handily anchored to the ground and posts, and thus does not turn into a long thin sausage with a ball at one end, zooming away from the back of the goal. If a giant space net gets hit at a gazillion miles per hour by, say, an astronauts toolbox, isn't that what'll happen?
1. Most debris moves in the same direction - so orbit the catcher in the same direction, just a little faster or slower (alternately) so th impact is normally failry slow.
2. The net is metallic, and charged so that most debris will tend to stick.
3. The catcher has a limited life before it has too much junk to operate and is re-entered to burn up. Thus it can afford to carry a good fuel supply, and IT dodges the Satellites, not vice-versa.
4. It could perhaps carry more than one net - when one is overloaded, or developed too many holes, dump it into burn up and carry on with the next net.
5. Before going to burn-up, could it link up with the ISS, so they can recover anything valuable first?
Don't let the aliens nick our historic artifacts.
... but I'm not getting it.
I mean, um, if the Japanese build these "Tholian Webs" aren't they likely to ensnare the same spacecraft / satellites / etc. they claim to want to protect?
This is kind of like the US/UK intelligence apparatus "making the world safe for democracy", no?
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