DailyDirt: Look Up, Look Down All Around, Hey Satellite...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Tue, Nov 8th 2011 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Sending stuff up into space is one of the coolest things people have figured out how to do. And just like other technologies, we haven't quite figured out how to deal with the mess we've created from it. Here are just a few interesting links on some nifty space projects for making satellites smarter and more sustainable.

DARPA�s Phoenix program wants to turn orbiting space debris into usable satellites. Great! A step towards creating a Nomad satellite that will have to be talked into a logic trap for self-destruction... [url]
There's a pollution problem caused by putting satellites into space, and the space junk is building up without many good ways to clean it up. Outer space is unimaginably vast, but the amount of it that is useful for geosynchronous orbit is finite (and becoming harder to use now). [url]
Autonomous satellites and spacecraft are learning to control themselves in a solar system simulator. The project actually sounds like a really expensive version of Logo and Turtle. [url]
To discover more links on space exploration, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon universe. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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Filed Under: geosynchronous orbit, satellites, space, space junk
Companies: darpa

5 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 8 Nov 2011 @ 10:30pm

just shoot 'em down with lasers
There's supposed to be some powerful lasers that'll just zap all that space junk...
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iBelieve, 9 Nov 2011 @ 8:29am

Space junk poses a greater risk
Should we ever have the pleasure of actually getting friendly visitors from other solar systems or galaxies, we would all be caught in utter disbelief if their ship was taken out by an obsolete piece of junk that was just hovering around the planet at 17,000+mph.
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iBelieve, 9 Nov 2011 @ 8:37am

Re: just shoot 'em down with lasers
The thought of some rowdy cowboy like Randy Quaid aiming recklessly into orbital space and indiscriminately taking out the wrong satellite immediately came to mind when I thought about who gets to shoot the lasers!
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JD Quintinita, 9 Nov 2011 @ 10:06am

Space pollution problem? Naw
Isn't space a vacuum?
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Michael Ho (profile), 9 Nov 2011 @ 4:01pm

Re: Space junk poses a greater risk
It would pretty amazing for aliens with the capability of INTERSTELLAR TRAVEL to not have the technology to avoid "space junk"...
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