NASA needs strategic plan to manage orbital debris efforts
September 6, 2011
International Space Station‘s orbit (in green) and the Debris Ring (red) from the Chinese ASAT test (image from December 5, 2007). (Credit: CelesTrak.com)
NASA should develop a formal strategic plan to better allocate resources devoted to the management of orbital debris, says a new report by the National Research Council titled Limiting Future Collision Risk to Spacecraft: An Assessment of NASA’s Meteoroid and Orbital Debris Programs. In addition, removal of debris from the space environment or other actions to mitigate risks may be necessary.
There is enough debris currently in orbit to continually collide and create even more debris, raising the risk of spacecraft failures, the report notes. A recent near-miss of the International Space Station underscores the value in monitoring and tracking orbital debris as precisely as possible.
“The current space environment is growing increasingly hazardous to spacecraft and astronauts,” said Donald Kessler, chair of the committee that wrote the report and retired head of NASA’s Orbital Debris Program Office. “NASA needs to determine the best path forward for tackling the multifaceted problems caused by meteoroids and orbital debris that put human and robotic space operations at risk.”
Comments (3)
by Brian H
Big blobs of aerogel in suitable orbits. Stuff would embed, and the high drag of the aerogel would bring it down rather quickly. Or tiny pressurized gas jets could lower it into atmospheric contact, which would rapidly de-orbit it.
by eldras
I used to worry about this years ago possibly incited by Clarke’s writings.
But I believe machines will be designed and build by intelligent technology that take care of this:
If the primative robot hoovers we have now can clean basic floors and charge themselves, I anticipate semi-permanant self-charging space cleaners.
I also suspect that ‘natural’ junk is more of a problem, and bits of meteorites in space are hard to anticipate presently, though I may be ill-informed.
by RobinSongs
The late Arthur C. Clarke was a proponent of the Space Elevator and I remember him saying in an interview that debris was going to be a major problem and perhaps make the Space Elevator impractical.
He imagined a huge broom-like “sweeper” sweeping through space could perhaps clear up the mess up there. He talks about it in this YT video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZSrAoMzRm8