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_shapeshifting t1_jd0pe06 wrote

Reply to comment by threebillion6 in 10 months after its launch by SpaceX, a $10,000 satellite made by students with off-the-shelf materials and powered by 48 Energizer AA batteries, is not only working, it's demonstrating a way to reduce space junk by lughnasadh

but what if the one thing you send up there is responsible for eliminating 100x it's mass in disparate debris?

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threebillion6 t1_jd0uh5y wrote

How? Are you picking up that stuff and carrying it around while you collect the rest of the stuff? Added mass means more fuel you need to take up, to be able to move between orbits. Sending up the ability to deorbit itself removes the need for us to send up another thing. Along with actually getting that thing into orbit. Who's gonna pay for it? These are just honest questions. I'd love to be able to send up something that can maneuver around and collect debris, but it's an engineering feat to do that.

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_shapeshifting t1_jd0zcqw wrote

you don't actually collect it, you use a laser to turn small deadly things into significantly less dense, less deadly clouds of plasma.

EDIT: the same people who launch their own commercial satellites have a financial incentive to pay for the solution to make their satellites safer.

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threebillion6 t1_jd10mt3 wrote

How powerful a laser are we talking about? I could see that going badly very quickly.

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_shapeshifting t1_jd12pst wrote

powerful enough.

I can imagine paint flecks destroying the ISS, so which one do you want: a solution with risks or risks without solution?

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KruppeTheWise t1_jd10nud wrote

If you aim the laser correctly the gases boiling off the sats surface will push it out of orbit too.

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_shapeshifting t1_jd1344t wrote

that'd be a really strong laser lol.

I'm imagining this as a solution for the 1 million+ objects the size of flecks of paint. maybe the ones as big as a marble.

to boil a whole satellite would be hardcore but also insane

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n1elkyfan t1_jd19xy4 wrote

One idea is to use something like rocket labs which is the Photon. It's used as a kickstage for other satellites but could be used to deorbit other space junk since it is usually deorbited anyways.

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