Deadly Debris

Back in February 2009, I posted to the Moon, Mars, and Beyond blog some items dealing with space debris.
http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/2009/02/up-up-and-away-ping-ping-thunk-thud-and.html

Chad sent me a link to Mike Combs short story, "Deadly Debris" which it looks like DARPA should now read. A very riviting story.
http://writings.mike-combs.com/deaddebr.htm

In September DARPA released a Request for Information (RFI) regarding orbital debris removal capabilities. Tiny URL for
http://tinyurl.com/yl6j33v

Launchspace http://www.launchspace.com/editorials.html had an editorial September 28, 2009 entitled Space Debris Gets Some Respect, which mentions it.
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For the last few decades the international space community has freely used near-Earth space for many important applications without regard for the impact of artificial satellites on the space environment. Although space-faring nations have spewed trash from 200 km to beyond 36,000 km, the space below about 1,600 km has been severely abused. Recent events have finally persuaded the U.S. Government to start thinking about cleaning up this environmental "super fund site." No, it is not the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that has been given the task of figuring out how to remove space debris. It is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a part of the Department of Defense (DOD).

On September 17th, DARPA released a Request for Information (RFI) regarding orbital debris removal capabilities. This request is addressed to all potential domestic and foreign sources and it asks for innovative solutions that might lead to the eventual removal of orbital debris.
snip
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If folks would like to participate in on-line discussions of topics like Deadly Debris in space, Google has a way to do this with Google Wave.

It is by invitation only for now and MemphisDJ sent me an invitation so I have been reading up on Google Wave, watching videos, and looking at some conversations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Wave
http://wave.google.com/help/wave/about.html

I thought I would post this to a New Wave and if you have a Google Wave account you can let me know what you think.
Title is: Deadly Debris
https://wave.google.com/wave/#restored:wave:googlewave.com!w%252B091sB_F2A.1

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
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Google Wave Invite info:
http://mashable.com/2009/09/29/google-wave-invites-2/
http://www.googlewaveinvite.com/
https://services.google.com/fb/forms/wavesignup/
http://www.googlewaveinvite.com/category/google-wave-news/
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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Space station crew has close call with space junk

Bob, in Texas, sent me a heads up about a recent close call from space junk for the ISS.
Thanks Bob.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D96SMFQ02&show_article=1
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http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
snip
MCC-Houston CAPCOM Kathy Bolt spoke with Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke about the possible conjunction of an estimated 13-centimeter-diameter piece of space debris with the station. Listen to an edited clip of the highlights of the conversation including the first notification that went to the crew and the all-clear notification.

+ Listen to the audio clip of the conversation (2.1 Mb MP3)
http://www.nasa.gov/mp3/318202main_tca_highlights_clip3.mp3
snip
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I suppose that with more satellite launches and more collisions of old satellites the chances of near misses will only increase.
- LRK -
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Orbital Debris Quarterly News - October 2008 - [1042 KB PDF]
http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/newsletter/pdfs/ODQNv12i4.pdf
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Here we have seen another example of debris in Earth orbit causing problems.
I wonder what will happen when we start sending folks to the Moon?
Will we have debris in solar orbit drop in unexpectedly?
- LRK -

Where will all of our booster stages end up then?
In the ocean, in lunar orbit, in solar orbit to come back later?
Fly along with us and follow us to the Lunar surface?

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

More at:
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/

Up, up, and away -- ping, ping, thunk, thud -- and I thought rush hour traffic was bad.

Recently we had an airline plane downed by bird strikes to both engines and a successful landing in the Hudson River.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/15/new.york.plane.crash/

For a rocket launching a satellite to space, things in your flight path can make for a bad day as well.
We think about going to the Moon with astronauts again and setting up shop on the Moon.
When that happens the number of launches to space will increase and the concern for where the latest space debris is will be on their minds.

Gunjan reports that India is still on track to put humans in orbit with their first manned spaceship around 2015.
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/090211-india-manned-spaceship.html

China has orbited their astronauts with their third space mission in September 2008.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4333158.stm
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE48O9VL20080926

Pings on a satellite can be expensive and be a cause for more space debris.
Pings on a spaceship with humans aboard is even more concern.

We have had a few satellites break up and just recently two satellites collided.
This is not good and will add to the risk of launching to space.
Who keeps track of where our man made junk orbits?
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-spacejunk0809feb08,0,7720847.story

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16584-satellite-collision-creates-copious-space-junk.html
Satellite collision creates copious space junk

Larry Kellogg

More at: BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/