
The quest to conquer Earth’s space junk problem (2018) - primodemus
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06170-1
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lolc
Tragedy of the commons in the space age.

How about the a rule that you have to remove trash in proportion to the mass
you introduce? If you want to send up satellites now you have to organize to
have some pieces of trash already there to be removed. When you finally remove
the satellites you introduced, that counts towards your balance. But only at
that time. As long as they are up you can't send up more without cleaning up
some other people's junk.

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BitwiseFool
An interesting idea, but it would be prohibitively expensive; in terms of
Delta-V and cost.

You are already launching a satellite into an orbit where it will try avoid
existing space debris. So, anything added to the payload to de-orbit space
debris would have to spend delta-v adjusting it's orbit to match that of the
space junk. Then it would need enough fuel left over to de-orbit the target.

I think it would be better if a certain amount of the launch cost would go
towards a fund meant to de-orbit space junk.

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lolc
> I think it would be better if a certain amount of the launch cost would go
> towards a fund meant to de-orbit space junk.

It seems to me that we're in agreement.

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thinkcontext
Any active mitigation technique like lasers could also be used against live
satellites, raising huge national security implications. Seems like a huge
area of potential conflict and likely a new race for parity.

IE, "Could a Chinese Space Junk Laser Double as a Weapon?"

[https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a15338238/...](https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a15338238/china-
space-junk-laser-weapon-potential/)

I also seem to recall Musk saying the lasers on Starlink satellites used for
communication could also be used for cleaning space junk. I'm sure that caught
the attention of many militaries around the world.

