Suggested reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syn…

Good Morning Charles,
Funny, when I saw the title of your posting, the first thing I thought about was the film, "Gravity". What do you know, you have a link to a scene from it.

It is problematic, space debris. Not sure much can be done about it. A "space janitor" sounds fine but how feasible? For now, space debris monitoring is about all we can do.

I can't wait for Charles to research the physics (and fuel requirements) of getting a "Space Janitor" from one orbital path to another to intercept debris.

But maybe he'll swerve to the left and think space laser to de-orbit. In gun-loving america surely we can build a giant laser to blast desructive-level-power beams of photons from our planet while simultaneously not being able to control stopping those photons that don't hit their target.

An anime based on this topic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes

+1 for Planetes. Excellent series.

It's a shame all the space junk hasn't coagulated into a single massive island like that floating monstrosity in the Pacific, but at least we're breaking ground on bold new ecosystems to pollute.

A spatula? Stow your shit, people.

The space fence isn't a fence... A 3-D printer isn't a printer either.

People attach names to things in a mostly haphazard manner and then they get stuck, unfortunately.

@3:

I think the problem with your idea is that blasting space debris with a giant, ground-based laser is both super-expensive and not terribly efficient, as most of the energy is going to be absorbed by the atmosphere before the beam reaches its target. Then there's the problem that shooting up at objects isn't quite as simple as blowing them to smithereenies (which you wouldn't want to do anyway, because then you're just turning one large piece of junk into lots and lots of smaller pieces). You have to hit them at the correct angle with a relatively low-powered beam to allow the momentum of the photons to push against the object enough to slow it down so that atmospheric drag can act on it. This might work for medium-sized objects, but we don't currently have any laser capable of having this kind of effect on really large objects such as spent boosters, and trying to hit something as small as an errant bolt or even a thermal glove moving 17,500 mph at the correct de-orbit angle and for a sufficient length of time isn't exactly like playing Duck Hunter either.

And shooting at debris from space, while somewhat less problematic, still has some inherent risks, since obviously you don't want to accidentally hit anything of value on the ground, not to mention the sheer intricacies of calculating relative orbital velocities of both the laser and the junk at which it's being aimed.

All that being said, both ideas have been, and continue to be explored, but the most effective solution seems to be: 1. put less junk up there, and; 2. try to avoid collisions between larger objects.

@4:

Is this available anywhere? I really loved Moonlight Mile (wish it had gone into a 3rd series), and this looks somewhat similar in style and tone.

Well she was walking all alone
Down the street in the alley

Her name was Sally
I never touched her, she never saw it

When she was hit by space junk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFCU_Ld9…

@11, there's a reason I said to de-orbit and not obliterate into more space junk.

@14:

Sorry, must have skimmed over that. My bad.

Yeah, I'm actually pretty sure it's not an ecosystem and I knew I'd get called on it. Bold new... environments to pollute? Maybe would've worked if I suggested we were "seeking" new ecosystems.

Maybe we could launch boner, mcconell and a few other republican morons into low orbit with huge magnets attached to their bodies. They would attract the space debris and after there was enough collected by each republican we could send a small nuclear warhead to disintegrate the whole freakin' mess. Get rid of some troublesome politicians and the space debris in in one fell swoop!

@6 "a single massive island like that floating monstrosity in the Pacific"

The pacific trash patch, or trash vortex if you like, is the largest of 5 such patches, but is not an island like structure. The vast majority of it circulates underwater (hence the "vortex"). It would actually be nice if it did accumulate into a more solid mass, allowing for easier cleanup and awareness efforts. It doesn't photograph well.

Standing on the deck of a boat, you see very little evidence of what lurks below - millions of small to tiny bits of plastic of all kinds stirred and trapped by ocean currents into a kind of slow motion underwater trashnado that's fairly toxic to the ecosystem.

You're sort of right in that much like space junk it's mostly out of sight, out of mind.

@12, looks like one can stream it here.
http://www.animeram.eu/planetes/