I figured this deserved a bump based on the findings from a recent conference in Montreal, Canada at McGill University. Looks like removing debris is on the table!
Tiny cube to tackle space debrisUK researchers have developed a device to drag space debris out of orbit.If successful, CubeSail could become a regular add-on system to satellites and rocket stages.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8590103.stm
Wait! Wait! I got it. ... Thoughts?
...(1) Given a sufficiently large aperture, the same. You only get significant attenuation in the atmosphere. (2) The attenuation depends very much on the angle of the laser relative to the vertical. A laser fired almost horizontally would be attenuated very much. Firing straight up would be best for attenuation, but that would be useless for decelerating the debris.(3) In any case, the attenuation is not the real problem since it is only a few percent. The biggest problem is that the refraction index of the air varies over space and time, so the ray gets diverted in a random direction by a tiny amount. The same effect is responsible for the "flickering" of stars. (4)You can avoid this to a large degree by choosing a site with good seeing, and compensate for the remaining fluctuations by using adaptive optics. This is almost exactly the same technology used by large ground-based optical telescopes.
...Depends on what you define as reasonable...
What orbits will this be used in? I'd guess high inclination LEO and GTO.
Quote from: tamarack on 03/28/2010 05:28 amWhat orbits will this be used in? I'd guess high inclination LEO and GTO.Why high-inclination orbits?I would expect it to work well only in low orbits (regardless of inclination). In GTO, the drag would be significant only at perigee, meaning that over time the apogee will gradually decrease. Since apogee in GTO is so large, it will take a while to get the apogee down to the point at which there is significant drag over a large fraction of the orbit. ...
Quote from: DeanG1967 on 03/29/2010 03:59 amWait! Wait! I got it. ... Thoughts?A vacuum in a vacuum? If that's not sarcasm, someone should slap some sense into you.
I mentioned high-inclination LEO and GTO because they pose the greatest risk of high speed collisions and cascading debris as they cross orbits. High inclination is not only high risk, but the most crowded.
As to GTO; Most objects have a perigree of only a few hundred km and would be effected most by increased drag. They, and the dense debris field between 750-1000km, is what this device is likely made for.
Quote from: bolun on 03/27/2010 06:38 pmTiny cube to tackle space debrisUK researchers have developed a device to drag space debris out of orbit.If successful, CubeSail could become a regular add-on system to satellites and rocket stages.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8590103.stmWhat orbits will this be used in? I'd guess high inclination LEO and GTO.
Actually such a concept will be tested by Poland's first satellite PW-Sat This cubesat is due to launch on the first Vega flight