Earth's orbit is getting congested

[Queasy]

Link

Traffic in space is getting so congested that flight controllers in the past few weeks have had to nudge three spacecraft out of harm?s way, in one case to prevent the craft from colliding with its own trash.

On July 23, controllers in Houston raised the orbit of the International Space Station by roughly five miles to avoid hitting a half-ton tank of ammonia that a spacewalking astronaut had tossed out earlier in the day while doing some housecleaning on the $100 billion outpost.

?We don?t normally dump something like this,? said Lynette Madison, a spokeswoman at the Johnson Space Center. But, she added, the space shuttle had no room in its schedule for returning the refrigerator-size tank to Earth. Officials expect the container to orbit the Earth for nearly a year before making a fiery re-entry.

Another episode took place on July 4, as the nation relaxed for the holiday. Ground controllers at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., fired up the engines on NASA?s CloudSat, a $217 million environmental satellite that peers inside cloud formations with a powerful radar, to dodge a mini satellite launched by Iran in 2005.

Cheryl L. Yuhas, head of earth science missions at the Washington headquarters of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said the maneuver put more than two miles between the two spacecraft, preventing a potential crackup.

Officials and private space experts say episodes like these illustrate the danger of a drastic rise in satellites and space debris in Earth?s orbit. Early this year, after decades of growth, the federal catalog of detectable objects (four inches wide or larger) orbiting Earth reached 10,000, including dead satellites, old rocket engines and junkyards of whirling debris left over from chance explosions and weapon tests.

Now, that number has jumped to 12,000. China?s test of an antisatellite weapon in January and four spacecraft breakups in February, one of them mysterious, have contributed to the buildup of debris. Space officials worry that a speeding bit of space junk could shatter an object into dozens or hundreds of fragments, starting a chain reaction of destruction.

Experts said that moving spacecraft out of the way to avoid collisions, once a rare way of dealing with potential threats, is becoming increasingly common.

I remember bringing up something like this in middle school and being looked at like a loon by the teacher and other students. In your face Mr. I-Can't-Remember-Your-Name!

 

[Electric Amish]

Ask the Pharmacist for some Psuedoephedrine...

 

[DaveSimmons]

The anime series Planetes chronicles the thankless work of trash collectors in space.

Eventually the show's opening is going to come true, and some loose piece of space junk will take out a shuttle.

 

[Kadarin]

Earth's orbit is getting congested

Grammar nazi mode <on>: You mean "low-Earth orbit is getting congested", not "Earth's orbit (around the sun) is getting congested".

10 yard penalty for improper use of an apostrophe.

 

[Chronoshock]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
The anime series Planetes chronicles the thankless work of trash collectors in space.

Eventually the show's opening is going to come true, and some loose piece of space junk will take out a shuttle.

I'm in the middle of watching that right now, great series. First thing that came to mind when I read the thread title

 

[nwfsnake]

Giant orbiting electro-magnets....

 

[Mxylplyx]

Congested is a relative term. They call it a close call in space if 2 objects pass within a mile of eachother.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: nwfsnake
Giant orbiting electro-magnets....

Oh sure... Make it even harder to track the stuff up there. As much junk as there is, at least they know where it is (and can give things a nudge every now and then). Toss in a big electromagnet to stir it all up, and it'd be a nightmare to calculate the trajectory of things that have near misses with the magnet! Then, when a hunk of metal moving 25,000 mph smacks your electromagnet, there'll be tons of small electro-magnet bits to track..

 

[illusion88]

I'm going to build my own space ship, made from the parts of lesser space ships.

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: Mxylplyx
Congested is a relative term. They call it a close call in space if 2 objects pass within a mile of eachother.

But when you are traveling at more than 18,000 miles per hour there really isn't a ton of room for error.

 

[Mxylplyx]

Originally posted by: vi_edit

Originally posted by: Mxylplyx
Congested is a relative term. They call it a close call in space if 2 objects pass within a mile of eachother.

But when you are traveling at more than 18,000 miles per hour there really isn't a ton of room for error.

Probably more to do with the fact that the satellites cost hundreds of millions of dollars and could take a few years to replace if one is taken out. Even a miniscule chance of a collision isnt acceptable.

 

[Regs]

Shit I bet my car keys are up there.

 

[buck]

Originally posted by: Regs
Shit I bet my car keys are up there.

lol

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
The anime series Planetes chronicles the thankless work of trash collectors in space.

Eventually the show's opening is going to come true, and some loose piece of space junk will take out a shuttle.

There was a p&p rpg where space was filled with so much junk that space travel was made impossible. I think it was Rifts, but I could be wrong.

 

[dainthomas]

I was watching some science show the other day, and they were showing astronauts chucking crap out of the shuttle (and not small pieces either). Seems like a smart idea, since one of them could come around and plow through your head at 18,000 mph on a future mission. Dumbasses.

 

[zephyrprime]

What they need to do is build a giant laser up there and use it to push space junk into unstable orbits so they burn up in earth's atmosphere. The giant laser can be powered by another giant laser on the ground.

 

[ViviTheMage]

so now there is too much trash in space?

we are f*cked

 

[RollWave]

Originally posted by: Electric Amish
Ask the Pharmacist for some Psuedoephedrine...

Booooo! Horrible joke!

 

[rise]

and four spacecraft breakups in February, one of them mysterious

whats that about?

 

[sao123]

Space junk distribution.

 

[Vonkhan]

Originally posted by: sao123
Space junk distribution.

o f*** :Q

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: rise

and four spacecraft breakups in February, one of them mysterious

whats that about?

i heard about it a few days ago but don't remember the details. i want to say one instance was due to sabotage but I'm not 100% sure.

 

[Mxylplyx]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: rise

and four spacecraft breakups in February, one of them mysterious

whats that about?

i heard about it a few days ago but don't remember the details. i want to say one instance was due to sabotage but I'm not 100% sure.

Your thinking of a NASA contractor sabotaging one of their computers on the ground. Nothing came of that.

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: nwfsnake
Giant orbiting electro-magnets....

Oh sure... Make it even harder to track the stuff up there. As much junk as there is, at least they know where it is (and can give things a nudge every now and then). Toss in a big electromagnet to stir it all up, and it'd be a nightmare to calculate the trajectory of things that have near misses with the magnet! Then, when a hunk of metal moving 25,000 mph smacks your electromagnet, there'll be tons of small electro-magnet bits to track..

Instant job creation for scientists!

"Okay, Bob, so there are 15.5 trillion irregulaly shaped magnets with 15.5 trillion different trajectories, along with the 1.2 billion garbage particles orbiting the Earth. We need to know if we launch a shuttle in January from Florida, will it hit any screws between 1/2 and 3/4" long?

We'll need the results by 2. I'm going to lunch."