{"id":550,"date":"2009-03-16T08:18:59","date_gmt":"2009-03-16T13:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/?p=550"},"modified":"2009-03-16T08:20:56","modified_gmt":"2009-03-16T13:20:56","slug":"anti-debris-microsatellites-kill-debris-to-be-cleaned-up-anti-anti-debris-nanosatellites-pending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/2009\/03\/16\/anti-debris-microsatellites-kill-debris-to-be-cleaned-up-anti-anti-debris-nanosatellites-pending\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-debris microsatellites kill debris, to be cleaned up anti-anti-debris nanosatellites (pending)"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the ISS-near miss last week <\/a>was any indication, space debris is becoming more of a hazard to orbital navigation. If it isn’t the Chinese blowing up satellites<\/a>, its the Americans blowing up satellites<\/a>, or the Russians crashing into satellite*<\/a>s (“crashing” for the cynically-minded).<\/p>\n

The latter event — where a Russian satellite took out an Iridium satellite — is what supposedly caused the debris that made for a dramatic Friday morning for twitterers and ISS crew alike. Especially the crew, of course. <\/p>\n

So, this article in Russia Today<\/a>, says that the Japanese are developing microsatellites to grab debris, presumably, some of the medium-sized pieces, and fall back to earth. The tether idea sounds neat (but the headline sounds vaguely inappropriate).<\/p>\n

Japan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s space agency (JAXA) is planning to use microsatellites to clear orbits from space junk. The robotic cleaner grabs debris with a robotic arm and then lunges down to force the dangerous pieces back into atmosphere.<\/p>\n

The 140-kilogram device uses electrodynamics tethers to drag down the debris. The tethers are conductive wires with lengths of up to several kilometres, which can be used to generate propulsion.<\/p>\n

The Japanese cleaner approaches debris, attaches itself to it with a robotic arm, and then moves to a lower orbit, unwinding the tether from a reel. An electric current is generated in the tether, which interacts with Earth\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s magnetic field to create drag, which slows down the debris making it re-enter the atmosphere and subsequently burn up. The satellite, of course, is destroyed in the process as well.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

*OK, how cool is it that Iridium had backups parked in orbit already?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If the ISS-near miss last week was any indication, space debris is becoming more of a hazard to orbital navigation. If it isn’t the Chinese blowing up satellites, its the Americans blowing up satellites, or the Russians crashing into satellite*s (“crashing” for the cynically-minded). The latter event — where a Russian satellite took out an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,18,8],"tags":[58,38,48],"class_list":["post-550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gregs-reference","category-science-fandom","category-sciencegeek-porn","tag-armageddon","tag-science","tag-space","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7V2xo-8S","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":553,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550\/revisions\/553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}