Researchers are developing a real-life tractor beam, with the goal of pulling defunct satellites out of geostationary orbit to alleviate the space junk problem.
If the plan is to just grab a single client spacecraft, and tow it then this is basically already in progress. We will see this happen when NASA launches OSAM.
Seems like an arm that can clamp to the marman ring costs a lot less, and can be ready now.
To go full sci-fi, though, lasers are likely a good tool for smaller debris. High power lasers can ablate the prograde side of small debris, using the gassified solids to push the debris into a lower orbit until the atmosphere can take over.
In very similar technology, I would suggest reading about electrodynamic tethers, where instead of shooting electrons at ships, you can use a long wire to claw your way through earth’s magnetic field.
As is said in the article, the advantage of being touchless and to not destroy the debris is to not make the problem worse: one debris is not problem, but a million debris from the destruction is a catastrophe.
Physical contact have much higher risks of accidents, and destroying the debris is just a no go. I know a laser can push the debris in earth atmosphere, they don’t talk about this case though.
Now the only reason this is a terrible idea is that it requires first rendezvousing with a spacecraft every time you want to deorbit it. You’ll have the propellent to do this what, 2 or 3 times for every garbage collection spacecraft launched? That’s one enormous cost…
Yeah, we have hall effect thrusters, but it doesn’t really matter, the spacecraft still needs to push the mass of both spacecrafts a pretty significant distance and then return to the orbit of was at.
That’s just a lot of work.
I’ll admit, that using this for cleaning up geostationary orbit is more viable that leo, but it’s still questionable how long this will actually be useful.
If the plan is to just grab a single client spacecraft, and tow it then this is basically already in progress. We will see this happen when NASA launches OSAM.
Seems like an arm that can clamp to the marman ring costs a lot less, and can be ready now.
To go full sci-fi, though, lasers are likely a good tool for smaller debris. High power lasers can ablate the prograde side of small debris, using the gassified solids to push the debris into a lower orbit until the atmosphere can take over.
In very similar technology, I would suggest reading about electrodynamic tethers, where instead of shooting electrons at ships, you can use a long wire to claw your way through earth’s magnetic field.
As is said in the article, the advantage of being touchless and to not destroy the debris is to not make the problem worse: one debris is not problem, but a million debris from the destruction is a catastrophe.
Physical contact have much higher risks of accidents, and destroying the debris is just a no go. I know a laser can push the debris in earth atmosphere, they don’t talk about this case though.
Now the only reason this is a terrible idea is that it requires first rendezvousing with a spacecraft every time you want to deorbit it. You’ll have the propellent to do this what, 2 or 3 times for every garbage collection spacecraft launched? That’s one enormous cost…
That’s probably not the case. We have efficient thrusters now. And the spacecraft will stay on the same orbit all its life.
Yeah, we have hall effect thrusters, but it doesn’t really matter, the spacecraft still needs to push the mass of both spacecrafts a pretty significant distance and then return to the orbit of was at.
That’s just a lot of work.
I’ll admit, that using this for cleaning up geostationary orbit is more viable that leo, but it’s still questionable how long this will actually be useful.
Yes, I’m excited to see the results of that mission to tell us if arms are good enough or if we need softer effectors.
In the end we may need to swallow trash wholesale in large containment vessels before doing and dv changes, or some other difficult expensive way.