Space Debris: Is It a Crisis?

For anyone looking for a good anime, I would recommend <i>Planetes</i> which is about a crew that protects the Earth from space debris.

Kessler syndrome is one of the things that give me that dread feelings, one of the things vast majority of people can do nothing about, yet it can derail any dreams of extra terrestial endavours before we even reach that point.

Steve Wozniak&#x27;s startup, Privateer[0], was originally created to clean up space junk, but it seems now their “mission” is to develop better tracking of objects in space, and to use this data to help avert disastrous collisions.<p>On the site is a fun interactive object tracker.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.privateer.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.privateer.com&#x2F;</a>

One question I’ve been wondering about (and please hear me out because this is an honest question and I know nothing about this area.)<p>SpaceX’s Starship is being built based on the (business) principle that extremely low cost-to-orbit will be a good business, because it will unlock a huge market for launches. Some tiny fraction of these launches will probably go beyond Earth’s orbit. A much larger fraction (eg Starlink) will be aimed at low orbits where Kessler Syndrome can be avoided (unless there are major accidents.) But at least some of that new mass is going to wind up in higher orbits where Kessler syndrome is already a risk, and this new mass will obviously increase the risk of a disaster. And so far I’m only talking about Starship and SpaceX, not its competitors.<p>My question is: is there a world where Starship is a viable economic project — meaning its investment pays back at the rate SpaceX is betting on — but where it does not also dramatically increase the risk of disaster? And what exactly does the model of “successful Starship &#x2F; no Kessler syndrome” look like in terms of future launches? Has anyone modeled this?

Climate crisis, trade crisis, space crisis … time for a crisis crisis.

You might enjoy <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;whatsin.space&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;whatsin.space&#x2F;</a><p>Which describes itself as &quot;What&#x27;s in Space is a realtime 3D map of objects in Earth orbit, visualized using WebGL&quot;

I think you meant to share that link: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;yIsPbysinKw" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;yIsPbysinKw</a>

I heard StarLink satellites eventually re-enter the atmosphere when they are not orbit-stable. Thus this technology is bad for life on earth when it is lauched into space and again when decommissioned.<p>Here an article on that:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cnet.com&#x2F;home&#x2F;internet&#x2F;are-starlinks-satellites-depleting-the-ozone" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cnet.com&#x2F;home&#x2F;internet&#x2F;are-starlinks-satellites-...</a><p>Quite a crazy example of how costs are externalized, while profits are accumulated at the top.

Is this problem solvable by something similar to <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;theoceancleanup.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;theoceancleanup.com&#x2F;</a> ? The search space is much larger, granted, but once you figure out a way to efficiently spot a piece of debris, you could use a &lt;insert name of magical device here&gt; to bump the debris towards outer space?

It looks like this points to a landing page which includes a video with the same title: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=sRR5f68g3_Q" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=sRR5f68g3_Q</a>. Is that what was being submitted here?

When we are locked in by the Kessler Syndrome, are the extra terresterial aliens then also locked out from trying to «visit» us? ;)