Re: OT: Governmental Space Agencies or Private
 

PVK:
Well, yeah - cleanup of the junk thats already up there is going to be extremely impractical any way you slice it: little of it is plotted, much of it is too little to see and plot easily yet large enough to cause severe problems if it happens to hit you or yours, and it is spread over a humongous volume of space in many different orbits - the main problem in disposing of it is finding and retrieving it to dispose of it; that wasn't the idea of my post. The idea was to stash further grabage in such a fashion (except on things where you can be certain of a clean re-entry burnup - the standard disposal method for current new satelites - then you can just dump it into Earth's atmosphere). Sorry I wasn't clear on that point.

Re: OT: Governmental Space Agencies or Private
 

Eventually it could become a real problem. But that's where Q.U.A.R.K. comes in. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[ June 01, 2004, 20:50: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

Re: OT: Governmental Space Agencies or Private
 

My plan involves giant metal shovels in counter-rotating orbits to sweep up all the junk and deflect it down into the atmosphere.

Re: OT: Governmental Space Agencies or Private
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Actually we know the resources are there that would make the trip worthwhile. It's only a matter of getting the costs down to a level where it makes economic sense to go to space to get them. Tourism is the idea that gets everybody excited in the short term, and if that helps drive the technology the more's the better. But eventually it will be a minor part of the picture as industry starts to move to space for finding raw materials and manufacturing. Not in our lifetime likely on a large scale, but it will happen eventually.

Re: OT: Governmental Space Agencies or Private
 

That sounds like something Doctor Evil would come up with SJ. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

People of earth! I will rain down space junk upon your heads unless you pay me one Million DOLLARS! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: OT: Governmental Space Agencies or Private
 

bah, there would be some fool that would pay millions to put it in their collection. And if we could get to the moon and bring back the Apollo Lander and such equipment, that would bring in the bucks...

Of course the nazis...err...NASA people would confiscate it *sigh*