
Orbital Space Debris Caught for the First Time - oedmarap
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/mbwv88/watch-this-net-capture-orbital-space-debris-for-the-first-time-in-history
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sparrish
Title is a bit misleading. The company sent up the cubesat "debris" along with
their net for testing purposes. I guess that does make it space debris. If
their net had failed, it would have been yet another piece of junk orbiting -
but the the net effect was zero cleanup. It was a successful test.

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sandworm101
No.

>>> The mission involves deploying these cubesats as artificial space junk and
them capturing them to demonstrate the effectiveness debris removal
technology.

It picked up trash that it released. It did not intercept trash. It grabbed a
conveniently placed and engineered object with virtually identical orbital
parameters.

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jniedrauer
How is this different than capturing real trash, minus some extra Δv to match
orbits?

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sandworm101
(1) Finding the trash, targeting it with sensors. (2) Irregular shape/rotation
of trash. (3) Trash with sharp edges.

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CapitalistCartr
If you're intersted in the orbital debris problem, I reccomend Nasa's site:
[https://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov](https://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov)

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sctb
Previously:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18031714](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18031714).

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jniedrauer
Anime is real:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes)

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stevekmcc
We're a messy species: oceans, atmosphere and space. But we do have a
conscience, and we are creative, so maybe there's hope.

~~~
jniedrauer
This has little to do with anyone's conscience, and more to do with our fear
of Kessler syndrome.

~~~
stevekmcc
You're right, sadly: I guess I was anthropomorphizing us ;)

