Space FOD

[robav8r]

Soooooooo much material here

I thought this was interesting, if not a bit scary:
"In September 2023, the European Space Agency estimated 35,290 objects were being tracked and cataloged by the various space surveillance networks, with the total mass of objects orbiting Earth amounting to more than 11,000 tons."

 

[Flash]

Soooooooo much material here

Pretty sure that isn't the first time, I think the last astronaut that did that didn't fly again IIRC.

 

[GroundPounder]

Surprised it's not dummy corded to them in some way.

 

[IKE]

Soooooooo much material here

I thought this was interesting, if not a bit scary:
"In September 2023, the European Space Agency estimated 35,290 objects were being tracked and cataloged by the various space surveillance networks, with the total mass of objects orbiting Earth amounting to more than 11,000 tons."

Meanwhile, we're supposed to have every pen, flashlight, knife, etc. tethered to us...

 

[sevenhelmet]

And Musk is putting satellites (and a fucking car) up there like it’s his own personal playground.

 

[nittany03]

And Musk is putting satellites (and a fucking car) up there like it’s his own personal playground.

The satellites are there for a reason (high-speed internet to folks who otherwise wouldn't have it), and the car is in an orbit that's like 99.999 percent likely not to do anything in the next few centuries. He still would have had to throw a mass simulator of some kind on Falcon Heavy for it to be certified; he just used his car as a publicity stunt instead of a big block of metal. Elon is a raging douche and an asshole; I get it. That doesn't automatically make everything he does bad.

 

[Random8145]

SpaceX isn't the only one putting these mini satellites up there, other companies are as well and now China is planning to. In terms of infringing on the ability to see the stars, I think SpaceX is working with the astronomy world to help avoid this, but also from what I've read, they'd need a significantly higher concentration of satellites to reach the point of affecting the night sky.

 

[SynixMan]

At some point there's going to have to be a massive collection effort for this stuff. Seems like a great use of robots though, given the problem set and risk.

 

[IKE]

At some point there's going to have to be a massive collection effort for this stuff. Seems like a great use of robots though, given the problem set and risk.

Persistent Autonomous Craft to Mitigate Astronomical Nuisances?

 

[Random8145]

SpaceX already actually accounts for this. When a Starlink satellite dies, they have it designed where it will just burn up in the atmosphere. Something will need to be done eventually for all the other space junk up there though.

 

[Random8145]

Persistent Autonomous Craft to Mitigate Astronomical Nuisances?

View attachment 39247

And that's bigoted, you are implying that the spacecraft to do the cleanup is referred to as a man. It should be gender-neutral, so you need to create an acronym for PACPERSON.

 

[ea6bflyr]

And that's bigoted, you are implying that the spacecraft to do the cleanup is referred to as a man. It should be gender-neutral, so you need to create an acronym for PACPERSON.

What are your preferred pronouns? ?

 

[Random8145]

What are your preferred pronouns? ?

Not sure if you understood, but I was joking there.

 

[SynixMan]

Persistent Autonomous Craft to Mitigate Astronomical Nuisances?

View attachment 39247

SPECTRE already beat us to it.

 

[ea6bflyr]

Not sure if you understood, but I was joking there.

One usually puts a laughing (or similar) emoticon indicating they were joking….it appeared you were serious. ?