Aerospace Blog

Drop it all into the northern Pacific. It would be company for all that floating plastic garbage.

When I was a kid, there was TV show called Salvage 1. In it, a junk man (Andy Griffith) said "I'm gonna build a spaceship, go to the moon, salvage all the junk that's up there, bring it back and sell it." Sometimes the facts need to follow fiction - and not just for Washington politicians. My vote is to let private companies bid on the right to salvage space junk. The companies with the lowest bids can then assume the risks and reap rewards of such an operation.

Hi Moose. Long time no talk, anyway here go's. Everywhere in the course of the advancement of technology we humans have left a lot of junk lying around, so this is nothing new. That the junk this time is out in space gives me cause for alarm as it would anybody else.

What are we to do about it? We as yet havn't developed a space junk collecting agency, maybe this is the way ahead? If we can send rockets to the Moon and indeed Mars, it cannot be a big problem to organise a space junk collecting service like those we have on Earth. Lets give it a go and see what happens? Spencer.

On a news or documentary about 10 - 15 years ago. Nasa had a department that tracked this space junk, (if that department survived budget cuts.) I do not know how small they track, when they showed a screen of it, and it was pretty bad with just the U.S. and Russia as major players, now with the number of players, I can only guess.

They still track it and I read the number of pieces was up to 800,000 give or take a few

I have heard of this for many years now. How fitting that soon our outer space will reflect our inner space

Yes thats true. The outer space reflect our ineer space indeed. It will get worst when China, Japan, India and other space wannabees join this space orchestra. To prevent the worsening of that space junk mess, we are better off to start cleaning right away and show some sense of responsibility for a global community. I dont know how to collect and get rid of junk and it seems to be an impossible task but I believe it is doable. May I suggest some ideas for it. Why not use the same aerogel that was used to collect a comet dust. And instead of bringing it back to earth, sent it toward the sun to be burned.

Over time it will get rid of itself. Orbits decay and atmospheric drag takes over. Did you hear the one about the municipality in Western Australia that raised a fine for NASA for littering when bits of Skylab splattered all over it?

Of course, it's a serious and dangerous problem. But, do you really expect a government who sticks it's head in the sand over global warming and tries to gag NASA's report on airspace safety is going to suddenly become morally responsible and throw $billions at the problem. I think not.

First, we gotta build a giant vacuum cleaner to suck it all up. What??? It'll work! I saw it in a cartoon once..honest!

my brother found a piece of my cable system in the driveway last night, a splitter or something, he said "whats this? omg! no wonder the space shuttle won't fly!"

I'm still laughing thinking of chicken little lmao...

Hello, I would like to begin in saying that I am glad to have found a wed site that will address the need to discuss the ever increasing problem of space Junk. I have a simple idea that has been experimented on in the past by nasa but not in this type of means. The means being generating an electromagnetic field that could not only assist in bringing the rouge satelite in a trajectory of stability rather then tumbling, but allows for the autonomous robot to link onto the unit and bring it under control. This should allow the unit to either be salvaged or cut apart and sent back to earth for disposal.

The key is to create a unit that is big enough to be able to handle some of the bigger objects in space and based on most of the items having some fares metals, the magnetic field can be adjust to artificially control the item. After all, in space the unit would be more excitable to change in this manner then it would be to reach out and try to catch the item manually. Once the item has been contained in the magnetic field, then the speed can be controlled by the recovery unit, then the tumbling can be stooped by a containment field. Once all these has been done, the recovery unit can take action as to what should be done to the item via control commands from ground control

In this becoming a useful means of collection, why not take the more historical items (I.E. Vangard 1) and return them back to earth to become a museum piece, and the rest salvage and refurbish or just recycle. The cost saving of revamping an old unit would be more cost effective then creating a new one in some cases.

Please let me know what you think of my idea, I must confess that my description is vague in detail to fit this blog but I hope the concept has at least been connived.

James Ryan II