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crisptapwater t1_j6luc32 wrote

Reply to comment by AlpineCorbett in 2 big pieces of space junk nearly collide in orbital 'bad neighborhood' by jeffsmith202

Again out of my league but collection of junk would take place in orbit/outside orbit then moved to a transport vessel that could get scooped before the trip out to the moon?

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AlpineCorbett t1_j6lvb3k wrote

Getting from orbit to the moon is many magnitudes more difficult than getting from orbit back to earth.

If we were able to create such a vessel, bringing it back to earth would be so much more efficient.

The highest orbits are about 23,000 miles above our planet. With the moon being 238,900 miles away on average. And unfortunately we are nowhere near being able to design such a craft. Things in orbit are not just sitting at a consistent speed that we could vacuum up by moving slightly faster.

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ChefExellence t1_j6mjafs wrote

I'll add to his comparison. It's like taking widely scattered of wood chips from your expensive garden to the south pole, where you plan to build your own reprocessing facility to turn the chips into chipboard to build your Antarctic base.

It's such a huge amount of effort for so little gain

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