And how much space junk will end up there? Cleaning up afterwards costs more money and long term thinking isn’t something shareholders care about over more profit today.
The tech is interesting, hopefully governments across the entire planet regulate it well enough. Although at the same time, its not like we really need to care either. In our lifetime its not like any of us are likely to be able to afford to go to space anyway, but it would probably be a good idea not to ruin it if we have a choice.
It shouldn’t be too hard to engineer orbit decay as a feature to avoid space junk.
Consider that space junk is so sparce it’s not really much if a consideration for launches. It’s like the rings of Saturn: the likelihood of a collision is so remote that they didn’t even consider it when we had a satellite move through it.
Pretty sure its the asteroid belt, not planetary rings, that you don’t really need to think about when passing through.
And yeah, it shouldn’t be too hard and yet look at all the junk already up there. Hopefully they can just be required to keep to very low orbits that decay rapidly.
It’s my understanding that the idea of a dense asteroid belt (the kind Han Solo might try to hide in) is basically pure fiction, they don’t exist. However… that is essentially exactly what some parts of a planetary ring system may look like up close. So perhaps Han could hide in a planetary ring.
The satellite Cassini passed through a less dense section of Saturns rings and was met only by dust particles, despite the rings being populated by objects between 10 meters and the size of mountains.
And how much space junk will end up there? Cleaning up afterwards costs more money and long term thinking isn’t something shareholders care about over more profit today.
The tech is interesting, hopefully governments across the entire planet regulate it well enough. Although at the same time, its not like we really need to care either. In our lifetime its not like any of us are likely to be able to afford to go to space anyway, but it would probably be a good idea not to ruin it if we have a choice.
It shouldn’t be too hard to engineer orbit decay as a feature to avoid space junk.
Consider that space junk is so sparce it’s not really much if a consideration for launches. It’s like the rings of Saturn: the likelihood of a collision is so remote that they didn’t even consider it when we had a satellite move through it.
I didn’t realize that, what mission is this your talking about? Cassini?
Yes, Cassini
Pretty sure its the asteroid belt, not planetary rings, that you don’t really need to think about when passing through.
And yeah, it shouldn’t be too hard and yet look at all the junk already up there. Hopefully they can just be required to keep to very low orbits that decay rapidly.
It’s my understanding that the idea of a dense asteroid belt (the kind Han Solo might try to hide in) is basically pure fiction, they don’t exist. However… that is essentially exactly what some parts of a planetary ring system may look like up close. So perhaps Han could hide in a planetary ring.
The satellite Cassini passed through a less dense section of Saturns rings and was met only by dust particles, despite the rings being populated by objects between 10 meters and the size of mountains.