From: sylvia@email.invalid   
      
   On 18-Nov-21 6:50 am, JF Mezei wrote:   
   > Recent events have put a fair amount of debris in potential collision   
   > with ISS and I assume a bunch of LEO satellites.  It isn't the first   
   > time and likely not the last.   
   >   
   > At the technical perspective, what concepts/technolopgies could   
   > pontentially be developped to make a vaccum cleaner for space?   
   >   
   >   
   > Say you can easiuly lauch a ship in same orbit as the debris field and   
   > it can sneak up behind it.  Is the concept of using a laser to vaproize   
   > pieces of metal real or just science fiction?  If you "laser" a piece of   
   > depris, does it just become small pellets of aliminium which then become   
   > bullets that penetrate ISS or other satellites? Or would it render the   
   > aluminium harmless ?   
   >   
   >   
   > It is possible to recreate re-entry conditions that destroy the pieces?   
   >   
   > Or is physically capturing the pieces, put them in a big bucket and   
   > de-orbiting the bucket the only way?   
   >   
   >   
   > Could one launch retrograde in that orbit and spread air in the orbital   
   > path at that altitude such that when the debris hit that air (which   
   > woudld be going at orbital sped in opposite direction) would slow down   
   > the debris and/or burn it up?  (causing both debris and air to drop   
   > down).   
   >   
   >   
   > I am curious to see what science would come up with should there be a   
   > challenge of cleaning space debris equal to landing a man on the moon   
   > and returning him safely before the end of the decade.   
   >   
      
   The debris field tends to spread out, and it's not in a single orbit,   
   because the initial destruction imparted different velocities to the   
   bits, in all directions.   
      
   Sylvia.   
      
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