After some thinking, I've concluded that I'd actually like if there was a large collision that resulted in a chain reaction and took out most of the military and commercial satellites. It's obviously needed, in order for people to reassess their priorities, and whether additional garbage will be left with every mission.
(if we're imagining, without damage to ISS and scientific projects, of course)
What would it cost to deorbit those rogue and derelict 50 safely and with intentional consensus, maybe as a post-orbital insertion deployment secondary mission?
When will it be safe and cost-efficient to - instead of deorbiting toward Earth's atmosphere - Capture and Haul and Rendezvous and gently Land orbital scrap on non-earth locations like the Moon or Mars or a thrust-retrofitted asteroid for later processing?
Would ISS be more useful as an oxygen tank in earth-moon orbit than in Earth's atmosphere and ocean?
Most of the list is rocket bodies which are quite large, and rendezvous is already challenging when everybody is collaborating, rendezvous with a tumbling uncontrolled giant piece of junk is even more difficult.
Astroscale is working on that in collaboration with various space agencies, they're currently planning a mission (ADRAS-J2) to connect to an uncontrolled rocket body and deorbit it circa 2027: https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/02/astroscale-aced-the-wo...
Theoretically, Starlink with enlarged argon tanks should be able to rendezvous and "shepherd" large debris objects into lower orbits. Add LiDAR (DragonEye) and dual "Push Me Pull You" argon thrusters and it can exert a gentle push even when the debris object is uncontrolled and tumbling.
I'm actually surprised SpaceX hasn't tackled this yet. Even including just one StarCleaner every 2-3 launches could make a huge difference.
This sounds like a classic 80/20 rule (change the numbers to your liking). This applies to many things. Notable examples are the majority of misinformation on social media coming from a few people and a relatively small number of words getting you most of the way there when learning a language
After some thinking, I've concluded that I'd actually like if there was a large collision that resulted in a chain reaction and took out most of the military and commercial satellites. It's obviously needed, in order for people to reassess their priorities, and whether additional garbage will be left with every mission.
(if we're imagining, without damage to ISS and scientific projects, of course)
What would it cost to deorbit those rogue and derelict 50 safely and with intentional consensus, maybe as a post-orbital insertion deployment secondary mission?
When will it be safe and cost-efficient to - instead of deorbiting toward Earth's atmosphere - Capture and Haul and Rendezvous and gently Land orbital scrap on non-earth locations like the Moon or Mars or a thrust-retrofitted asteroid for later processing?
Would ISS be more useful as an oxygen tank in earth-moon orbit than in Earth's atmosphere and ocean?
If Starship achieves full and “rapid” reusability then it seems like it would be a lot more feasible to collect and deorbit space junk.
Most of the list is rocket bodies which are quite large, and rendezvous is already challenging when everybody is collaborating, rendezvous with a tumbling uncontrolled giant piece of junk is even more difficult.
Astroscale is working on that in collaboration with various space agencies, they're currently planning a mission (ADRAS-J2) to connect to an uncontrolled rocket body and deorbit it circa 2027: https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/02/astroscale-aced-the-wo...
Theoretically, Starlink with enlarged argon tanks should be able to rendezvous and "shepherd" large debris objects into lower orbits. Add LiDAR (DragonEye) and dual "Push Me Pull You" argon thrusters and it can exert a gentle push even when the debris object is uncontrolled and tumbling.
I'm actually surprised SpaceX hasn't tackled this yet. Even including just one StarCleaner every 2-3 launches could make a huge difference.
For people interested in space debris, I highly recommend NASA's Orbital Debris Quarterly: https://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/quarterly-news/
Just get the space debris section on the case https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes
Do we really want to start junking up the moon?
This sounds like a classic 80/20 rule (change the numbers to your liking). This applies to many things. Notable examples are the majority of misinformation on social media coming from a few people and a relatively small number of words getting you most of the way there when learning a language
It's just a hit piece playing with statistics.
How convenient that the key culprits are Russia (and the scary Soviet Union) and China.
Especially when Trump wants to take on China while handing off The Ukraine to Europe.
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