|
|
Author
|
Topic: Astrium UK design to "harpoon" spent satellites
|
SkyMan1958 Member Posts: 867 From: CA. Registered: Jan 2011
|
posted 10-04-2012 05:30 PM
There's an interesting article from BBC News dealing with a new plan currently being researched in the UK for mitigating the build-up of space junk by "harpooning" old satellites. "Space has become a critical part of our infrastructure - from weather forecasting and Earth observation, to GPS and telecommunications," said the harpoon's designer, Dr Jaime Reed, from Astrium UK."Space junk poses a real threat to these vital services if we do nothing about it, and so it's very important we develop capture technologies to remove some of this material. Studies have shown that taking out just a few large items each year can help us get on top of the problem." Dr Reed's proposal is for a barbed spear about 30cm in length. It would be mounted on a "chaser satellite" that would edge to within 100m of a junk object. Pictures sent to the ground would then be used to assess the target, before the chaser was moved to within perhaps 20m to take a shot. Once the harpoon is hooked through the skin of the rogue satellite or rocket stage, the chaser could either pull on a trailing polymer cord itself or deploy a separate thruster unit to do the job of dragging the aimless drifter towards Earth. |
SpaceAholic Member Posts: 4437 From: Sierra Vista, Arizona Registered: Nov 1999
|
posted 10-04-2012 06:35 PM
Of course the same technology can also be employed nefariously by SPECTRE. |
Jay Chladek Member Posts: 2272 From: Bellevue, NE, USA Registered: Aug 2007
|
posted 10-05-2012 12:37 AM
If anything is going to get that close to a junked satellite, might as well grapple it some other way as opposed to shooting a spear at it. A spear can impart inertia into an object and if the aim isn't just right, it could cause the target to start tumbling, perhaps go shooting off in a different direction (admittedly a small chance of that if the satellite is heavy) or spew debris on many different paths to potentially threaten other objects in similar orbits. |
Ross Member Posts: 472 From: Australia Registered: Jul 2003
|
posted 10-05-2012 09:08 AM
I thought the biggest problem was not old satellites but smaller fragments. All satellites are tracked and for the foreseeable future are unlikely to cause significant problems. However, small items are much more numerous and difficult, if not impossible, to track. It only needs a small item travelling at speed to destroy a satellite (or spacecraft). Whether removing old satellites is worth the cost is a question for others.Regarding grappling satellites, this is not an easy task unless the satellite was deliberately designed to be grappled. Even then there are significant possible problems. Designing an automated satellite to grapple another satellite that may be spinning and or tumbling and has not been designed to be grappled would require quite some engineering, not to mention AI. | |
Contact Us | The Source for Space History & Artifacts
Copyright 2020 collectSPACE.com All rights reserved.
Ultimate Bulletin Board 5.47a
|
|
|
advertisement
|