From: alain245@videotron.ca   
      
   On Nov/19/2021 at 18:24, Sylvia Else wrote :   
   > 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.   
      
   Yes. But all of the pieces that stay in orbit (some can re-enter   
   immediately, others may escape) should return to the point of impact.   
   At least initially. As you said, the field will spread out.   
      
      
   Alain Fournier   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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