A vacuum cleaner for space junk

 

"Think of the latest idea of collecting space junk as something akin to a hungry tiger pouncing on its prey. Aerospace Corporation says its Brane Craft will wrap itself around debris orbiting Earth and drag it back down through the atmosphere, causing it to burn up and never again threaten satellites or astronauts.

The project recently received a second round of funding from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program, which funds far-out ideas that remain years away from launch — if they get there at all.

The Brane Craft is a yard across, flexible, and less than half the thickness of a human hair. This makes it difficult to protect the spacecraft's electronics from radiation, or even micrometeorites."  space.com

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And now for a break from lefty bashing and war analysis.

I am a space freak born a few hundred years too early.  This device looks promising to me.  The orbital trash problem is becoming severe.  This would be worth the money to NASA.  pl

 http//www.space.com/38105-ultrathin-craft-could-destroy-space-junk.html

Comments

[ambrit]

Wouldn't that be 'speciesist' bigotry? (That's if the "Greys" weren't the real first sentient inhabitants of the "New World.")

[turcopolier]

Peter in Toronto

Not once. pl

[paul]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome

does not really matter that space is big, once you have enough junk the junk keeps colliding and creating more and more separate pieces orbiting

[paul]

that was the point of the chinese test, they destroyed their own satalite to prove they can,

this accord right after the united states refused to join a non-weaponize of space treaty

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/u-s-opposes-new-draft-treaty-from-china-and-russia-banning-space-weapons/

[LeaNder]

Joining Laura, thanks for the comic interlude.

[John Minnerath]

LEO is a crowded trash strewn zone around our planet. Even though the dangers of all that uncharted debris has long been known it still accumulates at an amazing rate.
No one even knows how much there is and every satellite or other object passing through that zone is in increasing danger of a collision.
This Brane technology almost gets into the fantastical science fiction realm, but it actually is a developing reality.
There's some information around that attempts to explain what it is for the layman, but it's all still beyond most of us.
Something needs to be done and this project just might develop into a working solution.

[DH]

All I got was a rock.

[Peter in Toronto]

Well, the Chinese with a single test of their space weapon platform generated as much debris as decades of commercial and scientific exploration. I can get you the numbers.

The Chinese are very much contemptible in almost everything they do.

[John Minnerath]

PA,
Your blatant hatred of anything US makes whatever you write meaningless.

[kao_hsien_chih]

The idea seems a bit counterproductive to me.

On one hand, it is true that LEO is increasingly crowded for safe operation of satellites.

On the other hand, LEO is still pretty big and mostly empty, especially compared to whatever "vacuum cleaner" we could place in the orbit. Whatever space junk we can clean up will add up to very little, compared to what will be necessary to make a dent.

Wouldn't it be more cost effective to add more shielding to satellites whenever possible?

[Mel]

Well it has to. That's what we're talking about: an appliance to use on the vacuum after it has become dirty.

[Stumpy]

Sir,

Off-topic but offered as a break from normal ops -- presumably many of us caught wind of the Apple facial recognition feature on the iPhone 10 -- https://www.macrumors.com/2017/09/13/how-iphone-x-face-id-works/ --

So for $1000 you get an IR-capable cell phone with built-in 3D imaging that can see in the dark. My question is whether the developers can access this sensor system. Lots of possibilities.

Interestingly, Google has a patent : https://www.google.com/patents/US6442419

Makes me miss my PVS-5s a bit...

[SAC Brat]

I never trusted the Dozitronic technology, but I do trust Stanislaw Lem (In any form): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO9ppicjlFg (A fun German series loosely based off Lem)

The Futurological Congress is one of his books I like best. Always a hoot to try to understand all the analogies and metaphors when writing in a controlled system like the USSR and US cultures.

[mike]

SAC Brat -

Thanks for the great video link. I was more of a Heinlein and Azimov fan in my youth. But that video convinced me to put Lem's work on hold at my local library. They don't carry Futurological Congress but I'll keep an eye out for that in the used bookstores.

[Adrestia]

Rapper B.o.B. raising funds to check if Earth is flat
By Chris Bell BBC UGC and Social News

Spoiler: The Earth is not flat.

But US rapper B.o.B. is crowd-funding the launch of satellites to see if he can get some evidence to the contrary.

The rapper, whose real name is Bobby Ray Simmons Jr, has been a vocal proponent of the Flat Earth theory - the claim the Earth is, in fact, a disc and not spherical.

Some proponents of the Flat Earth theory claim NASA employees guard the edge of the world to prevent people falling off.

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-41399164

When I read this I wasn't sure if I should laugh or cry?
The worst part is that it is probably serious.