How would we clean up LEO in the event of run away Kessler Syndrome?

[RainDreamer]

If one day our space is filled with debris that zip around at orbital speed, and launching spacecraft safely becomes near impossible, how are we going to clean them up?

Do we just launch something like a cloud of kinetic energy absorbing foam on a ballistic orbit to catch them then let it fall down to earth and burn up?

Do we pull out our lasers and start zapping those things until they break down to insignificant sizes, or just push them away to higher orbits by ablation?

Or do we just build craft with better shielding and plow through debris fields?

Maybe something else entirely?

[Sampa]

I say either push it out into a higher orbit or slow the debris into a suborbital trajectory.

[EzinX]

Lasers. Cheap and practical. There's a paper somewhere with the proposal - you don't push stuff into a higher orbit, you want to adjust the orbit the stuff is on so that part of it scrapes the atmosphere and friction does the rest. The lasers would be fired from the ground, and would not actually be all that big or expensive.

[Kibble]

Since the primary danger is all the little junk (tiny fragments of metal, solid rocket exhaust particulate, paint flecks, and that kinda stuff) cause its so much more abundant and nearly impossible to track, I think the only plausible solution is to just...wait. Wait for most of it to decay to reentry. During launch, space vehicles spend a significant portion of the flight at orbital altitudes but suborbital speeds, so debris won't be easy to fend off. Not to mention opposing inclinations! You could blindly shine lasers into the sky for awhile. Regularly launch sounding rockets and measure how much debris they encounter.

But theres really no way to track it all, even the dimmest stars will outshine 99% of Kessler's debris.

[RainDreamer]

Lasers. Cheap and practical. There's a paper somewhere with the proposal - you don't push stuff into a higher orbit, you want to adjust the orbit the stuff is on so that part of it scrapes the atmosphere and friction does the rest. The lasers would be fired from the ground, and would not actually be all that big or expensive.

Yeah, forgot to add it to the OP, since ablation propulsion works both prograde or retrograde, so we just need to burn off the stuff precisely enough for them to drop to orbit.

Though I still wonder about how are we going to do that in practice with so many tiny debris moving at orbital speed in space without having to build laser stations all over the world.

Since the primary danger is all the little junk (tiny fragments of metal, solid rocket exhaust particulate, paint flecks, and that kinda stuff) cause its so much more abundant and nearly impossible to track, I think the only plausible solution is to just...wait. Wait for most of it to decay to reentry. During launch, space vehicles spend a significant portion of the flight at orbital altitudes but suborbital speeds, so debris won't be easy to fend off. Not to mention opposing inclinations! You could blindly shine lasers into the sky for awhile. Regularly launch sounding rockets and measure how much debris they encounter.

But theres really no way to track it all, even the dimmest stars will outshine 99% of Kessler's debris.

Waiting is apparently the current method if such an event happen now. Though I wonder if there is more we can do to speed it up without having to sit on our thumbs and wonder "can we go to space yet?" for an unknown amount of time.

Edited March 21, 2015 by RainDreamer

[Brotoro]

Launch rockets into orbit that mix up chemicals to make expanding foam in a giant plastic bag. Junk hits it...gets stuck inside...and the large size and low mass of the bag means it will deorbit by aerodynamic drag relatively quickly.

[Newt]

There was a proposal I saw for launching 'balloons' made of kevlar (or the like) which would float around getting smashed by as much debris as possible. The design would capture the objects that hit it, and then, after it was full, fire an engine to deorbit.

Anything, though, would either take a long time or a ton of resources. In a case where it is highly dangerous or impossible to get satellites to orbit, it seems probable that something will be done, if not for space exploration for military endeavors. Until there seems to be a danger, probably we are just going to avoid leaving trash. That is the best solution.

[sgt_flyer]

There was a proposal to launch a satellite in an orbit retrograde to the debris orbit, and which would release a cloud of gases when the debris come near - the gases friction would slow down the debris to deorbit them, whike satellites caught in it would need to use a bit their thrusters (obviously, the gases disperse very quickly, and they need to use stuff that will not affect science instruments)

Edited March 21, 2015 by sgt_flyer

[Yukon0009]

Space battleships.

[smjjames]

Since the primary danger is all the little junk (tiny fragments of metal, solid rocket exhaust particulate, paint flecks, and that kinda stuff) cause its so much more abundant and nearly impossible to track, I think the only plausible solution is to just...wait. Wait for most of it to decay to reentry. During launch, space vehicles spend a significant portion of the flight at orbital altitudes but suborbital speeds, so debris won't be easy to fend off. Not to mention opposing inclinations! You could blindly shine lasers into the sky for awhile. Regularly launch sounding rockets and measure how much debris they encounter.

But theres really no way to track it all, even the dimmest stars will outshine 99% of Kessler's debris.

We'd have to wait decades for that stuff to come down.

[PB666]

If one day our space is filled with debris that zip around at orbital speed, and launching spacecraft safely becomes near impossible, how are we going to clean them up?

Do we just launch something like a cloud of kinetic energy absorbing foam on a ballistic orbit to catch them then let it fall down to earth and burn up?

Do we pull out our lasers and start zapping those things until they break down to insignificant sizes, or just push them away to higher orbits by ablation?

Or do we just build craft with better shielding and plow through debris fields?

Maybe something else entirely?

1. HIGH ISP Ion drives in pairs with chain-link fencing, Roll out the fencing and start knocking stuff into decaying orbits. The Cannae drive if it works has a job, go and deorbit stuff. All it has to do is put something in an orbit that will decay in a couple of years. Once it does this it corrects its own orbit and starts looking for the next object.

2. Take a look at my Space Port, if objects were sent to this at EOL, then you could have a bot pick them up and put the objects inside. At some point they could be recycled into space hotels.

http://i.imgur.com/0NNRaJe.png

3. You could collect all the debris into packages put a shield on them and bring them back to earth and create a used satellite museum and research institute. How about that space shuttle, the one device we had that could actually return a payload.

[cantab]

Stop spe - oh wait, no politics allowed on KSP forums.

[Kibble]

We'd have to wait decades for that stuff to come down.

Well you can't laser Kessler down cause it's all too small to see from the ground, and you can't launch anything orbital to do anything, cause it will just become more deadly space junk. Woof...

You could launch spacecraft on suborbital trajectories equipped with an infrared telescope and desperately search the sky for anything that moves, and beam telemetry to a ground-based laser installation to sweep the areas determined likely to be populated with debris. Repeat ad infinitum! But since you'd probably only have a few minutes where you're out of the atmosphere and close enough to see anything, it sounds like a waste of an infrared telescope.

[Bill Phil]

Kessler is all blown out of proportion anyways.

It's only a problem in certain orbits so far.

Just wait for all the debris to be molecule size. Then you're good.

[vger]

Found this, though it wasn't what I was looking for.

http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/space-debris/debris-removal/electrodynamic-debris-eliminator-receives-funding/

I remember something once about using an space tether that would attract debris to it with either static electricity or electro magnets. That's what I was searching for, but it didn't turn up.

[RainDreamer]

Would electromagnets works for parts like plastics and stuff?

[vger]

Would electromagnets works for parts like plastics and stuff?

Magnets was just a guess, because I only have a vague memory of the article now. Suffice is to say that the satellite was meant to work by 'passively' attracting the debris.

[peadar1987]

Launch something from a high-latitude launch site to avoid the bands of Kessler debris. Dog-leg it into a more equatorial orbit, above the debris, use a giant nuclear- or solar-powered laser aimed just below retrograde, below the bands of debris, fire wildly into the field, cause orbits to decay due to radiation pressure. Wait several decades, launching further spacecraft as necessary. Avoid making same mistakes again.

[AngelLestat]

we buy some good books and we start to play more sport games, because that it will be all our fun that we can have over the next 2 decades.

[LordFerret]

Launch something from a high-latitude launch site to avoid the bands of Kessler debris. Dog-leg it into a more equatorial orbit, above the debris, use a giant nuclear- or solar-powered laser aimed just below retrograde, below the bands of debris, fire wildly into the field, cause orbits to decay due to radiation pressure. Wait several decades, launching further spacecraft as necessary. Avoid making same mistakes again.

Not in the entire history of mankind does that ever happen. lol

[HoloYolo]

I would say bombs. Send them up, collect debris, and ignite the bomb. What kind of bomb you may ask? Hydrogen bombs. Since they have a HUGE explosion radius, and the fact that the US has tons of 'em, I think it would be practical.

[impwarhamer]

Couldn't just adequate shielding of spacecraft solve the problem at least temporarily? It may not be the best solution, but it sounds like the most likely one to be used in this event.

[Kibble]

Couldn't just adequate shielding of spacecraft solve the problem at least temporarily? It may not be the best solution, but it sounds like the most likely one to be used in this event.

A bit of debris at the same semi major axis and eccentricity, but inclined 60 degrees wrt your orbit is travelling at a relative velocity equal to your orbital speed. On LEO, where orbital speed is around 7 km/s, that bit of debris will hit with kinetic energy equal to more than twice its mass in TNT!

[Deutherius]

A bit of debris at the same semi major axis and eccentricity, but inclined 60 degrees wrt your orbit is travelling at a relative velocity equal to your orbital speed. On LEO, where orbital speed is around 7 km/s, that bit of debris will hit with kinetic energy equal to more than twice its mass in TNT!

It's closer to almost 6 times the mass in TNT, if my math is correct. Nevertheless, we need shielding against micrometeoroids and orbital debris even now - creating better shielding (even if only temporary to pass the dangerous zone on your way up) sounds pretty reasonable to me. It doesn't solve the problem, of course, but at least it gives you options.

[peadar1987]

I would say bombs. Send them up, collect debris, and ignite the bomb. What kind of bomb you may ask? Hydrogen bombs. Since they have a HUGE explosion radius, and the fact that the US has tons of 'em, I think it would be practical.

What would that achieve? Apart from huge EMP damage to our infrastructure.