UK engineers are developing a system to harpoon rogue or redundant satellites and pull them out of the sky. It is a response to the ever growing problem of orbital junk – old pieces of hardware that continue to circle the Earth and which now pose a collision threat to operational spacecraft. [more ]
I wanna, yanno, be a, yanno, space-trash-collector and, yanno, make a video about, yanno, hugs’n Gatorade’n stuff.
Wait … that’s it!
A device that huuugs the target.
(What? I know nuth-think! Bitin’ my tongue, here, former bosses.)
Of course, this is nothing new. BTF
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23 Comments!
Well, if the harpoon ruptures a fuel tank, the tether gets wrapped up in the spinning junk, the release fails and the garbage spaceship becomes one big spinning mass of chaos and soiled underwear, what happens?
Quark Richard Benjamin, 1977.
Now. more than ever…
New reality show to join the H2 lineup: Harpoon Stars!
^^^DougM^^^^
Just be damned sure you don`t step on that harpoon coiled line before you spear no satellite, buddy; bad jambo…. (…mebbe for safety, a heat shield strapped to your ass?…)
“Captain! Captain Ahab! Look! The Great White Satellite!”
I’d prefer my own design for the orbital garbage scow. A basic engineering principle is that form follows function.
So, rather than fly around the earth harpooning space junk (and by the way Jess’s ruptured fuel tank imagery is compelling), I think we should go to nature to find the right form for dealing with space junk. For example:
http://divingaccidents.net/images/Great-White-Shark-3.jpg
and
http://www.apexpredators.com/photography/images/Great_White_Shar_4c455266903e0.jpg
My garbage scow would just fly along, maneuver, and swallow it up.
What about Jess’s fuel tank? [BURP!!!]
Don’t touch my junk!
I don’t know about the rest of the junk but what could happen to those soilded underwears in space scare me.
^ “…what could happen to those soilded underwears…”
Reentry!!
Has anyone watched episode #1 of Dead Like Me?
Watch out for Reavers, Mal!
I hear that Romney doesn’t care about space garbage men.
Anyone remember an Andy Griffith TV show about a space trash man with a homemade rocketship?
^^^MASTER CHIEF!^^^
I would remove “Reavers” and insert, depending on circumstance and context, variously: SEIU Thugs, Black Panther Thugs, Code: PINK! Thuggettes, Occupy monkey butt rats and Rainbow twinkle toe twits.
Ironic….I like your image of a Great White garbage scow. Given what has been found in their bellies during post-mortem dissections, it makes sense. Last season of Dr. WHO ….(the wife unit’s favorite show) had a Great White wandering into a boy’s bedroom through some kinda time shift created by Daleks, maybe?
Just put long strips of flypaper into orbit, each with a little rocket motor and command guidance set on one end. When they collect enough crap, send a signal to fire the little motor and de-orbit them and let them burn up in re-entry.
^^ Maybe I should have specified a giant trash compactor where the stomach would be. (shades of Star Wars)
13: …image of a Great White garbage scow.
Oops! I think I did a racist boo-boo….
Ironic,
Dunno why we have yet to meet…seems like a travesty.
I am off to a ecclesiastical convention and will return late Saturday. We live in the north-west corner of Denver, almost in JeffCo. The neighborhood is, sadly, called Berkeley. Its the far west end of the old city of Highlands. Great food, great drink…partially because of the influx of Wash Park kinda libs. That is something I still don’t understand.
Sondra and Doug have my email addy….. Give me a shout and we can help turn the tide!
Sounds like a big waste of potential colony building material to me….
Sven, you raise a point. Let’s take it off line the middle of next week or after.
Sondra already has one of my emails, though I check it little.
Claire 18: Perhaps an orbital recycling plant: in goes junk, out comes new space station components.
Might make no economic sense at all.
[insert missing catchy punchline that does not occur to me here]
Ahh, I see the Doomsday Machine
Credit for short and sweet?
“See ya later, Accelerator.”
Error in orbital mechanics? Would it be that, if the pursuing vehicle is overtaking the capsule, then it would have to be in a higher orbit and thus nowhere near?