ESA report shows unsustainable levels of orbital debris

Re:ESA report shows unsustainable levels of orbital debris by ggm on Tuesday July 23, 2024 @06:44PM (#41051799)

If a brief moratorium (brief in geological time, like 25-50 years) was imposed, would this clear up? Or, does it descend into grey goo in space because at a threshold size, the debris can "float" on the exosphere?

Not a suggestion we call a halt on sat launches for 50 years. I'm asking if the remediation of time would work.

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Re:ESA report shows unsustainable levels of orbital debris by sunjieming on Tuesday July 23, 2024 @06:56PM (#41051867)

According to NASA: If the debris is <600km the orbit decays within a few years. >800k can take centuries and geostationary objects on the high end (~36000km) can take thousands of years.

Most of the debris is in LEO so it could take decades to centuries for the debris to clear out

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Re:ESA report shows unsustainable levels of orbital debris by ggm on Tuesday July 23, 2024 @07:34PM (#41052155)

So the killer move would be to launch a fleet of sats above the debris field, and then launch self-destructive sats into the persisting space dense enough to make launch and persistence in that field hard.

Take command of the high space and make the low ground indefensible.

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Re:ESA report shows unsustainable levels of orbital debris by anonfornoreason on Tuesday July 23, 2024 @11:40PM (#41053412)

Just read a fiction book that had this as the premise in a war between china and the USA. China took the high orbits and blasted the low. Personally I thought it was a a very interesting twist!

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