Swiss cleaning up space junk

steingar

steingar

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Those paragons of cleanliness and tidiness are taking it one step further. The Swiss are launching CleanSpace One, a satellite to clean up space debris. Story on MSNBC.
 
the unfortunate part is that the most dangerous debris is also the debris requiring the most delta-v to grab.
 
Love it! Love the innovation.

Makes you also think twice about having a second navigation system in addition to GPS.
 
And unless they've got something super-cool like a solar sail, they can only carry so much fuel for delta-v. I don't see how it can efficiently remove enough junk to justify itself.
 
TMetzinger said:
I don't see how it can efficiently remove enough junk to justify itself.
Click to expand...
Precisely, by the way I wonder what would be the cost of removal a piece of junk, probably astronomical. And this janitor creates junk of its own just by being in orbit and having been launched somehow. I would like to see a cost-benefit analysis.
 
It doesn't have to make a profit. If the swiss want to clean up space, that's fine. But it does have to make some sort of sense. I'm also wondering about military applications...
 
TMetzinger said:
And unless they've got something super-cool like a solar sail, they can only carry so much fuel for delta-v. I don't see how it can efficiently remove enough junk to justify itself.
Click to expand...

Sounds like this is more of a "wish list" item, then a readily available system.

Though NASA and MIT are working on a proof-of-concept design on the ISS for autonomous rendezvous and docking with tumbling objects:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/SPHERES.html


And NASA is also working (and has simulated with the robotic arm) refueling satellites in space.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/RRM.html
 
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