Education School Homework, need opinions

blue sky thinking....

Large solar reflector, position in high orbit with a variable angle parabloic reflector.

A focused beam would superheat the debris and vaporise it.

Running cost would be low as the main power scource would be the sun, danger would be low low as it would be in high orbit, and as it has a targeted focal point it would not endanger items not at the focal pont.

Discuss.

 

archimedes' death ray in space F T W (forgot spelling it without the spaces inbetween resulted in cheesecake)!

What if it hit another satellite?

however, the energy requirements to maintain it would almost be zero compared to my idea of using a laser. +rep

 

high orbit, out of the way of other items, plus exposed to the suns rays for longer ;-)

 

actually i think you'll find the answer is any speed
unless you can find me a log that is both 26 meters in diameter and length


in terms of helping the OP (i read the first page, but not the others, so sorry if you dont need help anymore or if anyone has said the following)

how about a satellite or drone that floats around with a magnet to grab debris, and then can compact or launch said debris into the atmosphere in a controlled way
obviously magnetism isnt that strong, so it could be piloted with thrusters, although this would make it a very short lived satellite/drone
however even if it was air/spaceborne for a short period, it may still be a better option than other spacecraft missions.

when it comes to the end of its useful life it can be landed in an ocean and retrieved
which means it wont contribute to future space rubble

 

The problem with trying to collect stuff is when you come across something travelling in a slightly different orbit - the ridiculous speeds mean anything coming the other way is incredibly damaging. Kiss goodbye to a net.

 

I like it nice one

seriously though - the aero gel. But as stated it would have to be more than a 'gel' to catch some of the stuff whizzing round up there!

My first thought was an effin big block of lead! but even if it didnt take out all the satelites and the space station it just wouldnt stay up there long enough to catch much......

or would it? i Have no Idea... sorry

 

As krikkit pointed out, this idea relies on all of that debris being in close enough proximity to collect over time without damaging interaction from debris on a significantly different trajectory. Second, I don't know the thermodynamic properties of aerogel, but you would need to prove that the material would remain in a constant and stable state in the hostile environment of space. Over time the aerogel may degrade and lose its ability to hold. Also, as the gel collects debris, its mass and physical properties change. This will cause the orbital properties to change; the entire mass will begin to tumble and roll unpredictably. In theory it's a neat idea, but it would need more study to determine feasibility.

Materials entering the atmosphere can get very hot, but they don't always disintegrate. The Space Shuttle does indeed have protective thermal tiles, and this provides an important lesson for the idea that you can just burn everything upon re-entry. When Columbia disintegrated, a lot of the wreckage survived the burn. True, most of the burn happened after the hottest part of re-entry, but the lesson is that the soft aluminum bits are almost always protected. In the case of the larger space junk, a lot of satellites incorporate MMOD shielding to protect against little things flying around in space. If you collect a bunch of stuff in an aerogel blob, some of it may end up somewhat protected during re-entry. The worst case scenario is a smoldering wreckage dropping down in the middle of a shopping center.

The NASA Orbital Debris Program Office might have some info that you can use in your research. It's worth a look.

 

Launch CERN into space! Wait for the 1,000,000 to 1 chance of a black hole being created which will attract all the junk and crush it!

Seriously though, as most the man made stuff up there is made of metal I would go for something that would attract the debris (magnetic), melt it down (focusing the sun), and recycle it. It would have to be powered by the sun, as the energy requirements would be quite excessive. The cost looks to be pretty staggering too. Think how many cars, CPUs etc could be made out of all the debris.

Or giant laser death rays please!

 

My vote would be some kind of reflector as suggested, to focus the suns energy onto a very small point. Or indeed a solar collector, and some kind of high wattage laser.
This would of course need fuel for positioning and targeting, but could be refuelled by the European or Japanese cargo launchers?
With small dust and paint flake size debris it would simply vaporise them (although tracking something that small in space may be challenging).
The larger debris however (Spent booster stages and bits of old satellite) would be a bit of an issue. If the 'beam' was focused onto one side and one spot on these larger pieces, the surface would vaporise away from the main bulk of the object producing thrust?
I watched something about deflecting incoming bodies with this method; it would take years to alter the course of a 2km wide asteroid but only a short burst for crusty old satellite?
Remember we are dealing with space here, a small push from a beam or a laser may be enough to 'de-orbit' large objects over time, or indeed send them to a higher earth orbit where they won’t cause too much bother.
Most new satellites are commanded to either; de-orbit and burn up in the atmosphere or to use the last of their fuel to push them into a higher and less cluttered orbit.

 

As mentioned before, not everything burns completely into the atmosphere. If it does not burn up, then we're in trouble.

Actually, i just remembered. It could be a 'controlled' de orbit. When the sea is directly underneath it, we could do that

 

True not everything would burn, large satalites would have to be pushed out of orbit, but smaller fragments would burn up very quickly.

 

I'm sorry but i'm not very sure what you mean now. From my view, i think what you meant was to use the laser/giant mirror reflector thingy to push the satellite out of orbit into the atmosphere where it will burn. But then you said it has to be pushed out of orbit again in the second post and now i'm not sure what you mean. Could you clarify?

 

Dude....

You get some awesome tasks at school nowadays...
I only ever got **** assignments, to be handed in a week or 2 later >.>

Try watching a series callled Planetes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes
Sure its an anime, but its quite good. Its about space travel and ****, but its focused on a guy who works for a debris salvage company. The author put a lot of effort into researching for this so it might give you some pointers.

 

Can't believe no-one has mentioned the ultimate solution.

Get Chuck Norris to punch it.

That or use an OC Fermi to burn it up.

 

Kick it towards the sun.

 

Right, the death-ray system is in high orbit at low speed.

As pointed out as it was vapourising items they would turn to gas and effectivley give thrust. You could use that thrust to manupilate the orbit of the debris - / -defunct satalite, either try to stabilse it for a longer burn, or , send it off into the sun.

I suppose it would depend on the size of the deathray system.
How much energy would be required to vapourise a given object in a given time.

You could work backwards in that a geo-sationary sat would get sunlight over 12 hours in 24 hours. In ideal world one item disposed of per day would be fine and makes for easy numbers.

For example given aluminium boils at 2500 C , how much energy would you need to boil 1 tonne in 24 hrs (are satelits aluminium?).

4 sq Km solar reflector (not alot really given it could be very thin, hell you could make it an inflatable frame, using gasses from the delivery systems propulsion to set up a semi rigid perimiter and have the center move to change the focal point. giving it only 2 or 3 rigid parts to make for low weight)

How much energy would 4sq Km of suns rays create on a focal point of 1sq meter 4000 more than normal. So if the suns rays heat one side of a normal satelite buy 10 degrees, the focused rays on the same item may cause it to rise by a thousand? I have no idea if this would be right or hot enough to start to vapourise aluminium.

You'd have to find some who knows these sort of things.

I'm just kinds playing with the idea but have no real hard facts to start from.

I guess you'll have to do some work...

 

Would any kind of energy beam type system work? If I'm not wrong, most satellites should have a reflective coating to protect against the Sun's rays?

I'd suggest some kind of projectile launching device. Tiny little pellets to just bump stuff out of stable orbit. They can do corrections to the debris if they realise it's headed for the neighborhood shopping center since the debris won't be shooting straight for Earth. And super sticky pellets maybe? The pellets might contribute to the problem if they bounce off the object. Constant correction of the launch device would be an issue with the whole third law of motion thingy..

 

I would think even a fraction of the speed of light would have enough punch to make a sufficiently wide gap.

Anyway, space debris: a huge umbrella-like unfolding sail of woven carbon nano-tube filaments. The lightness and thinness of the material allows you to pack a huge sail in a tiny rocket payload. Though enough to catch some debris and slow most other debris down to a deteriorating orbit and atmospheric re-entry.

 

im interested in what you've written on future fighter jets