XPost: misc.misc   
   From: tanada@provide.net   
      
   "Kent Paul Dolan"  wrote in message   
   news:1156522867.773495.194860@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...   
   > Carsten Nielsen wrote:   
   >>> Jim Owens wrote:   
   >   
   >>>> Would it be possible to de-orbit a small bit of   
   >>>> orbiting debris by firing a suborbital cloud of   
   >>>> oxygen at it?   
   >   
   >>>> If launched on a suborbital rocket, a tank of   
   >>>> LOX would evaporate into a cloud, which would   
   >>>> merely rise to a maximum altitude and then fall   
   >>>> back to Earth.   
   >   
   >> Research Project Highwater. It did roughly the   
   >> same with water.   
   >   
   > Based on the few available useful writeups, that   
   > seemed to be mostly a test of the Saturn 5 booster,   
   > and the water was just ballast. Still, they tried to   
   > do good science with it, perhaps related to interest   
   > in what a fleet of supersonic aircraft would do   
   > dumping water vapor into the high atmosphere???   
   >   
   > What they weren't doing, then, was trying to swat   
   > micro-trash out of orbit. That doesn't mean pro or   
   > con now whether the OP's suggestion would work.   
   >   
   > http://www.astronautix.com/craft/higwater.htm   
   > http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Saturn_SA2_launch.jpg   
   >   
   > FWIW   
   >   
   > xanthian.   
   >   
      
   Every so often someone mentions the possibility of an unfriendly nation   
   launching a high suborbital with a variety of payloads, ball bearings, sand,   
   water and flour all seem to be popular.  Basically anything that gets in the   
   way of something that has been deliberately put in orbit is an unfriendly   
   act.  If you dumped sand all ball bearing on a trajectory that intercepted   
   the ISSA or satellites for instance the costs would be extremely high to the   
   USA or owner of the satellite in question.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)