April 13, 2008: Pigs In Space

[xoxoxoBruce]

No, not these pigs in space....


These, pigs in space....

From ESA (European Space Agency);

Between the launch of Sputnik on 4 October 1957 and 1 January 2008, approximately 4600 launches have placed some 6000 satellites into orbit, of which about 400 are travelling beyond geostationary orbit or on interplanetary trajectories.

Today, it is estimated that only 800 satellites are operational - roughly 45 percent of these are both in LEO and GEO. Space debris comprise the ever-increasing amount of inactive space hardware in orbit around the Earth as well as fragments of spacecraft that have broken up, exploded or otherwise become abandoned. About 50 percent of all trackable objects are due to in-orbit explosion events (about 200) or collision events (less than 10).

High res pictures, here.

[Gravdigr]

Maybe those that pay to put these sats in orbit should also have to pay for their destruction/removal/disposition after their useful life is over...I've said this for years.

[xoxoxoBruce]

The way the prices of scrap metal are going, maybe Branson can make it profitable. Tourist rides on a space scrap truck.

[Imigo Jones]

. . . against this sort of eyesore? Earth must look like the place with the Chevy and two old pickup trucks up on blocks in the front yard. Plus the busted-down washer and doorless refrigerator on the porch.

P.s.: (xo)3Bruce, thanks for the welcome the other day.

[zippyt]

some body needs to collect , sort , bundel and jet this stuff to the moon for raw product when we set up a Moon base .

[Trilby]

We were promised a moon base by now, weren't we? Vacations on the moon? Fishing in ancient moon volcano holes for sexy moon mermaids and mermen? all that stuff the brochure promised?

[Eclipse]

This is what's making space launches more and more difficult. Hopefully someone comes up with a good way of getting rid of that debris. Does anyone remember seeing this joked about in the trailers of the future Pixar film, Wall-E?

[The 42]

Originally Posted by Eclipse

Does anyone remember seeing this joked about in the trailers of the future Pixar film, Wall-E?

Yeah, I was just thinking about that.
Another thought: If the only place we're getting our resources is Earth, then we WILL eventually run out of metals, or if we find a way to fabricate metal from something else, then we'll run out of mass. All that debris would be much more useful brought back to earth and melted down than flung off into space...
Too bad the only people in a position to actually do anything about it are too short-sighted to care!

[YellowBolt]

Originally Posted by The 42

Yeah, I was just thinking about that.
Another thought: If the only place we're getting our resources is Earth, then we WILL eventually run out of metals, or if we find a way to fabricate metal from something else, then we'll run out of mass. All that debris would be much more useful brought back to earth and melted down than flung off into space...
Too bad the only people in a position to actually do anything about it are too short-sighted to care!

And how do you propose we actually go about doing this? The cargo bay on the space shuttle has only enough room to hold 60 by 15 feet of debris, not to mention how you actually plan on getting that garbage into the cargo area. There's also the issue of finding a way to manoeuver your spaceship into position while using as little expensive rocket fuel as possible.

Basically, present tech is nowhere close to being advanced enough to clean up space debris.

[spudcon]

Someone should just go up there and get all that stuff, and put it out to the curb.

[SPUCK]

More!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjiGH9QNiU0

[WillieO]

Maybe this is our new defense system to keep those little green men away. Just make the whole damn neighborhood look bad and they'll move in across town!

[Scriveyn]

Originally Posted by WillieO

Maybe this is our new defense system to keep those little green men away. Just make the whole damn neighborhood look bad and they'll move in across town!

That is until the little green yuppies come along, converting the old satellites into lofts.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I read a recent interview with 93 year old Harold Rosen. He is the inventor of geosynchronous communications satellites—the satellite systems we use today to communicate and transmit data around the world instantly.
Syncom, the world’s first geostationary communications satellite, launched in 1963, was born of Rosen’s ingenuity, and he is still consulted on new satellites.

Q: What might the future have in store?

A: I see the pace of satellite innovation slowing down. I believe there’s a limit to what we can do and there’s definitely a limit on the bandwidth and orbit slots available to us.
The hot new area is the Internet. That technology hasn’t even reached its adolescence, whereas satellite technology is much more mature.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

I read a recent interview with 93 year old Harold Rosen. He is the inventor of geosynchronous communications satellites

I thought Arthur C. Clarke was normally given credit for that.