Kessler Syndrome/Kessler Effect

>>7757259
>This supposedly makes it nearly impossible to leave/enter the earths atmosphere.

It is a serious threat if nothing is done about it. Have you ever seen the anime series "Planetes"? It is a somewhat serious take on stuff like this and worth a watch. The story revolves around what you could call space janitors.

I think if this does become a serious problem, that things like temporary shield barriers will be used to ram ahead or encase the ship will be used. Perhaps later some sort of energy barrier will be developed maybe even a high power laser system to dust the debris before it hits. Launch corridors may be made using some sort of laser or microwave technology to burn everything on that trajectory. Or, all 4.

>>7757259

...whut?

18 cm and 1.2 cm?

That scale can't be right.

File: 1451709744978.jpg (58KB, 530x396px) Image search: [Google]

58KB, 530x396px

>>7757279
Seems like it is 9cm or close to that at least. Someone doubled the number or halved the other number.

Depends how far out they are. IIRC most satellites are in near earth orbit and feel reasonable drag from the atmosphere, so they fall in after awhile.

It's an OK solution if there is no radioactive material onboard.

>>7757284
It's likely that it was a 1.2 cm radius.

>>7757290
>>7757259
I can't seem to find the original source for these images. Anyone else?

>>7757302
click the little triangle next to your post number, then image search
http://pics-about-space.com/space-debris-nasa?p=3#

>>7758104
I did that originally and found that link but zero info, just an image.

>>7757302

http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2009/02/Hypervelocity_impact_sample

>>7758656
Thanks bruv

>>7757288
fucking space engineers at ESA confusing radius and diameter
no wonder LEO is messed up with junk

cant you blow them up with nukes?

Magnets.

File: Distribution_of_debris.jpg (814KB, 1680x1050px) Image search: [Google]

814KB, 1680x1050px

Pretty interesting, I think it's a fairly serious threat. If something like Envisat got hit or shot at by someone it'd make it real fucking dangerous up there.

Here's Kessler's original paper:
http://webpages.charter.net/dkessler/files/Collision%20Frequency.pdf

And a faq from some forgotten corner of NASA's website.
http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/faqs.html
>mustn't make webpages wider than 800px

I don't think it is that crazy of a threat. Most debris will settle into some circular orbit to where if you are up at that orbit, you are matching the speed anyways. The low orbit stuff is the problem as your delta velocity of debris and ship is higher. Though over time, the atmosphere will take care it.

>>7758781
Top kek.....

>>7758821
That's not really how orbits work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keplers_laws_of_planetary_motion#First_law

Objects orbit in ellipses. Collision debris doesn't have a circular orbit like what satellites are carefully placed into. At any given orbital elevation there will be objects moving at different speeds because some of them are at their apogee and some are at their perigee. Also not every piece of space junk orbits in the same direction: Polar orbit, Tundra orbit, etc.

Radar and high powered lasers on a ship, yo

Vaporize them

Would human debris even be comparable to random rocks and space debris from natural accumulation?

There is a lot of area in space

>>7757259
I just read the wikipedia article. It literally says:
>However, even a catastrophic Kessler scenario at LEO would pose minimal risk for launches continuing past LEO, or satellites traveling at MEO or GEO. The catastrophic scenarios predict an increase on the number of collisions per year, as opposed to a physically impassable barrier to space exploration which occurs in higher orbits.
In other words, it sounds like even the worst case scenario isn't that bad.

>>7758877

Way worst, as they're usually in stable enough orbits for some time

Space rocks tend to hit and burn up

If it was ever a real issue
Ground based lasers would be built to burn them up

>>7758888
He's right, so I'm not going to remove it, but that appears to be no more than the unsourced assertion of this rando: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/50.153.189.62

File: 1435457419638.jpg (144KB, 572x303px) Image search: [Google]

144KB, 572x303px

>>7758892
We're talking about possibly hundreds of millions of high velocity fragments of metal swarming the Earth's orbit.
It could take decades and require multiple laser sites to be constructed to throw the objects into an unstable orbit and even when it is finally deemed reasonably safe, we will still be at risk sending objects up.

Something needs to be done early.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0NEnPOx6ic
Simulation / reconstruction of the 2009 iridium collision.