Space Junk Has Reached 'Critical Density'

[mirth]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/amount-space-junk-around-earth-174208873.html

[steve58]

Found an interesting/cool website, Stuuf in Space.

a website that uses orbital data obtained from the website Space-Track.org and a Javascript library called satellite.js to calculate satellite positions.
In addition to active satellites, the data shows what space junk is flying around up there in real-time. At the time of writing, COSMOS 252 DEB — a defunct Soviet satellite — is flying over Ireland.

Space junk is represented by grey dots, while discarded rocket bodies show up as blue and active satellites show as red.

Speaking of why he wanted to put 'Stuff in Space' online, the programmer — who hasn't even started college yet — said in an interview: "I hope people get out of it a better understanding about the huge variety of stuff orbiting over their heads, and maybe learn a bit about how orbits work.

"I personally never realized just how many things are up there until I saw the plotted satellites for the first time."

p.s.  how is this thread not full of "junk" puns already?

[bob48]

We don't post just any old rubbish y'know.

[BanzaiCat]

Besides, I don't think we were really clear on if this was garbage junk or crotch junk.

[GDS_Starfury]

thats a whole lot of active sats!

[Bison]

I blame climate change.

[BanzaiCat]

I instead believe it to be the Hottentots.

[Swatter]

My question is- Why can't we just have normal problems? Why does everything have to be a crisis?

I want to blame the news media that will ignore rational people talking about problems in a rational way, but I think people are just going nuts these days. Last week I took part in an early access test for a game called Sword Coast Legends. The test went a bit rough, but people were just going nuts. The freaking world was about to end. The game was laggy! The tools were limited! It didn't adhere close enough to D&D rules! People just couldn't handle it and were personally offended. I can only imagine the developers received some hostile tweets and wanted to retire afterwards, because of the damn Gamers Gate crisis.

[MikeGER]

these days 'crisis' are often declared by organisations through the media (always lusting for juicy 'crisis'-news) because they want to get money to either do some more reseach on there pet issue, or are also involved in private biz that research, invent and finally want sell a way to solve the crisis to the government.

Well in case of space debris its more real then other declared 'crisis'. for example those social ones by NGOs
There is ongoing research in vaporising space debris with lasers, either from the ground or from space itself, and to change orbit of larger debris parts to shorten the number of orbits until reentry.

So i bet Government had done some serious cuts on the budget for this lately, and Kessler does his job to get the money dedicated back to that task.
And he has to make himself  heard in the loud chorus of all those nonsense-'crisis'-lobbyists, who also want the money for projects like lets say 'dying variation of tribal language dialects in the remote backcountry of some dysfunctional state on the African Continent', or 'skin inflammation long term effect on mortality of prison inked gangmember comparison between West and East coast institutions' ...
   

[Rekim]

While I believe spacejunk poses a real concern with the potential of becoming a massive risk to future space ops, especially manned missions, I find that the media tends to sensationalize the subject by overlooking the current situation.

The majority of current and past generation satellites are situated in geosynchronous/geostationary orbits, which require an altitude of 35,786 km (22,236 mi) over the equator. These satellites are not affected by the current space junk crisis per-se, with the exception of defunct satellites that failed on station prior to being de-orbited and will bounce around the orbit for a few thousand years (remember zombie sat http://io9.com/5535189/zombie-satellite-terrorizing-earths-orbit )

The next generation of satellites may take the form of large constellations of micro satellites flying in low earth orbit, where the vast majority of space junk is...so a big potential problem for those operations. Also worth noting that the technology needed for these new services to function doesn't exist yet. Only in theory.

[ComradeP]

What I've never really understood about space junk is that it is implied that there are so many objects in orbit around the planet that the orbit is "full" so to speak.

However, satellites are really, really, really small compared to the area they cover. Looking at that website steve58 linked to, the majority of the objects flying over Europe or the US at the moment would fit in a couple of streets.

I understand that with many objectives orbiting at more or less the same height, it becomes more difficult to find a spot for a new satellite, so the reports might be referring to that, but the implication that the actual orbit is full seems strange.

The risk of small objects colliding with a space flight seems genuine, but the media tend to talk about the problem as if the orbit is full of large objects instead of a blanket of small objects.

[Barthheart]

Yeah but a blanket of small objects is still very dangerous... something the size of an apple travelling at 28,000 kph will ruin yer day....

[eyebiter]

The ablation cascade concept hinges on more objects in orbit will cause collisions to occur more often.  Suddenly something as small as a bolt or paint chip is dangerous at high speed.  Without the shuttle to refuel satellites, this limits the frequency which satellites can be moved to avoid incoming objects.

Necessity being the mother of invention, at some point a major event will occur to spur space tech development.  Two satellites collide and cause a worldwide loss of telecom during a pivotal FIFA match or the Big Game for example.  Only then will consumers and industry DEMAND the government find a solution. 

Hype + Outrage = Funding

[Staggerwing]

Without the shuttle to refuel satellites, this limits the frequency which satellites can be moved to avoid incoming objects.

What about equipping satellites with ion engines powered by solar cells? I realize that the amount of thrust available from an engine and solar array small enough to mount on a satellite is minuscule but many of these collisions can be predicted far in advance and this may allow ground based controllers to slowly nudge their satellite out of the way long before the collision will happen.

[Rekim]

What about equipping satellites with ion engines powered by solar cells? I realize that the amount of thrust available from an engine and solar array small enough to mount on a satellite is minuscule but many of these collisions can be predicted far in advance and this may allow ground based controllers to slowly nudge their satellite out of the way long before the collision will happen.

The first satellite with all electric propulsion went into service just this month. Called ABS-3A, it is a Boeing 702 satellite with a xenon ion propulsion system. XIP thrusters are not new, however this is the first satellite to be launched without any propellent powered thrusters.

http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/14/worlds-first-all-electric-propulsion-satellite-begins-operation/

Even with XIPs the expected operational lifespan for ABS-3A is 15 years. The same as for satellites using dual propellant thrusters. This is because many factors play into the lifespan of a satellite. Space is a harsh environment.