5mo ago

Astroscale aced the world’s first rendezvous with a piece of space junk

5 comments

This is a fantastic accomplishment, and will hopefully be used to clear the skies a bit.
However, it has a down-side: Some nations (US, USSR, China, etc.) have a lot of tech in the skies, some of which they'd like to remain secret. Those nations will either have to match this skill (not high on their priority list in the past) or include self-destruct mechanisms in their future orbital vehicles so that the secret tech stays out of the hands of rival nations. You can guess which way they'll lean.
- or they could just deorbit their stages after they're done?
  i think this is honestly a really good incentive for governments to clean up their space debris
- Isn't deorbiting self destruction?
If the Astroscale grabs a piece of debris and nudges it toward atmosphere, won't it de-orbit itself as well? It wasn't clear from the article.
Seems like it would be more efficient to attach a couple of small boosters to the debris and wave bye-bye, Wile E. Coyote style.
- Boosters would have to be carried, which is bringing extra weight into space. It also means Astroscale would need to be periodically resupplied with more disposable boosters, or just become a piece of space junk itself.
  Nudging is way more efficient. You could calculate the trajectory needed to nudge a piece of space debris into an unstable orbit while keeping your own orbit stable. Or, a simpler method, just keep some extra fuel on the Astroscale to make minor adjustments to orbit as needed after capture.