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207 sats \ 4 replies \ @Undisciplined 13 Mar 2024 \ on: Objects Launched Into Outer Space charts_and_numbers
There's a fascinating hypothesis that civilizations become planet-bound by creating too much orbital debris to safely get off planet.
interesting.
i believe the majority of these objects are launched into low-earth orbit, and once they’ve surpassed their useful life they simply burn up in the atmosphere.
however, there is a space debris problem too, just not from the majority of object launches.
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I think the idea is that whenever there are collisions or small meteor impacts that ejects a bunch of small debris into random orbits. After enough time, there's just too much for safe transit.
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has anyone had any success cleaning up debris?
i’m thinking something like the ocean cleanup nets that are picking up plastics
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Not yet, but it's also not a big problem yet. I know there are ideas to launch chunks of magnetic materials into orbit that will sort of vacuum up a bunch of metallic debris over time.
There's not much you can do about non-magnetic debris though.
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