Would this space cutie litter?!
Sydney Morning Herald – November 20, 2006:
After years of debate on how to dispose of rubbish from the international space station, NASA has come up with the answer – open the back door and fling it out.
The agency that has long drilled its astronauts and international partners in the merits of responsible waste management is to relax its rules and allow the station’s crew to jettison selected items of superfluous or broken equipment.
Most discarded items will burn up in the atmosphere. But until they do they pose an extra headache for NASA, already tracking 13,000 of the largest items to ensure they do not hit the space station.
What would Iron Eyes Cody think?
Given that something the size of a paint chip can seriously damage or kill in space due to simple kinetic velocity, this suprises me. I’ve always wondered why they don’t make a better attempt at using re-entry heat to just burn up waste. Put a little deceleration engine of a disposible vehicle and burn it up in the atmosphere.
I do, though, see a market in gathering up orbital waste. What was the name of that TV series with Andy Griffith about space junkmen!?!?!
Throwing garbage out the window worked well for the highway system for many years and in parts of Texas, it still is quite effective. When the democratic leadership comes in, they can propose an “Adopt an Orbit” clean up campaign.
If this is true then it’s suicidal, and shows how little NASA now cares for going into space. If NASA was really interested in long term survival in orbit this wouldn’t happen.
And this comes soon after a huge hole was found in the space shuttle (Atlantis, I think) cargo bay, possibly cause by space debris.
I really can’t believe this is true…
This is what you get for putting a trailer park in orbit.
Before the rocket science geniuses on this board decide they’ve already run the simulations in their minds, stop and think.
First, the ISS has to be reboosted frequently to avoid burning up in our atmosphere. The ISS is at a Very low orbit to protect from radiation, and there is actually significant atmospheric drag. The trash ejected from the station will quickly decelerate with no artificial thrust to compensate.
Secondly, as previoulsy mentioned, NASA is well aware of a problem with space debris. The “rocket scientiests” (there is a little truth in the conventional wisdom that they aren’t dumb) can simulate the lifetime of the debris, and they wouldn’t make a conscious decision to eject it in this manner if it was going to cause problems.
All that will happen is the trash will follow the ISS from an increasing distance behind the ISS orbit until the trash loses enough velocity to reenter. They are not ejecting trash that could reach the surface, and because it was ejected from the ISS, the relative velocity of the trash is minimal, so no risk to the ISS (not to mention the trash could never catch up anyway).
Don’t worry, our alien masters will clean it up… as soon as they get here.
What was the name of that TV series with Andy Griffith about space junkmen!?!?!
Salvage One.
J/P=?
#1 and 7:
Oh god, you guys are serious! It was actually called “Salvage 1” if anyone wants to read more.
Hmm..Headline : Astronaut Killed by Tampon !! Yes, that cutie DID litter !
So, how come we can’t just bag the stuff, attach a “brought-by-the-shuttle” tiny rocket motor and re-launch the stuff towars the sun..yeah, that’s the ticket..I now claim the title of JCDs’ Rocket Scientist of the WeeK !!
well, the only real solution here is to either clean up the orbit, or make everything thrown away being made of a material that will disentigrate into um… well not biodegradable – but something like that (just add UV rays)
read comments just now – that looks like an interesting show – pre-special-effects – did they use models klike early starwars?
Would we really know the difference if they had never told us? What do you think happens at sea with garbage/sewage/greywater/oil? This is nothing compared to what is dumped into our oceans, or god forbid……..texas highways!
Well, if you are 100 miles up and you hurl garbage toward the Earth at 20 mph, it will re-enter the atmosphere in a couple of hours and burn up. Problem solved. Sounds like something that would work very well if they could figure out a garbage gun to mount on the ISS that was effective and reliable.
On top of that, the garbage would provide a tiny bit of thrust to push the station into a higher orbit (it will always be falling to a lower orbit without correction), thereby replacing the need for constant use of the thrusters. Another bonus.
This reminds me of the Futurama episode where a comet-sized ball of garbage launched into space in the 21st century is heading toward Earth and they deflect it with another giant ball of garbage. Then…
Leela: Should we really be celebrating? I mean, what if the second garbage ball returns to Earth like the first one did?
Fry: Who cares? That won’t be for hundreds of years.
Farnsworth: Exactly! It’s none of our concern.
Fry: That’s the 20th century spirit!