Japan Sends Long Electric Whip Into Orbit, To Tame Space Junk

[Down1]

Sounds cool.
Hope it works.
We are to busy importing "human" junk into this country to do cool stuff like that.

A cable that's as long as six football fields has been launched into orbit — and when it's deployed, it'll test an idea to knock out orbital debris. Japan's space agency sent the electrodynamic tether into space along with supplies for the International Space Station.

Reels aboard the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kounotori 6 craft will deploy the 700-meter (2,296 feet) tether, essentially unspooling a clothesline in space that could help clean up the roughly 20,000 pieces of potentially hazardous space debris that are tracked by systems on Earth.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/12/09/505020386/japan-sends-long-electric-whip-into-orbit-to-tame-space-junk


http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/12/09/505020386/japan-sends-long-electric-whip-into-orbit-to-tame-space-junk

[Glass]

anyone see any of this junk during the super moon? With that much junk and so many high quality photos and movies being published of the event and the moon in general, you think you would see the odd piece. Granted they claim the bulk of it is small but there's so much of it you'd think it might show up now and then, or there might be patches of "space junk smog". Some suggest there is so much you would see dozens of pieces per hour. Unrealistic expectation?

[Cebu_4_2]

anyone see any of this junk during the super moon? With that much junk and so many high quality photos and movies being published of the event and the moon in general, you think you would see the odd piece. Granted they claim the bulk of it is small but there's so much of it you'd think it might show up now and then, or there might be patches of "space junk smog". Some suggest there is so much you would see dozens of pieces per hour. Unrealistic expectation?

C'mon man, they can't even see stars or other planets from 'outer space' what makes you think anyone can see space junk from 'inner space'?

[Glass]

yeah, I know. An artists rendition of space junk.

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/731B/production/_84676492_s8000040-space_debris,_artwork-spl.jpg


Objects as small as 4 inches (about 10 cm) can be seen by radars or optical telescopes on Earth.
http://www.space.com/16518-space-junk.html


What are debris clouds?
When an object in space breaks up or blows up, each of the pieces will fly in its own, independent orbit. These orbits are mathematically related to one another, and we can analyze them collectively as a “cloud.” Space debris clouds are not at all like clouds in the sky, or a cloud of ink in a beaker of water. Since there is no air or other medium in which the cloud is suspended, the cloud grows and changes shape based solely on the laws of orbital motion. In computer graphics, you can see the cloud grow and change shape as the cloud forms into a ring around the Earth. But in real life, on a human scale, the pieces are too small and much too far apart to actually see debris as a coherent cloud.

http://www.aerospace.org/cords/space-debris-faq/

[Cebu_4_2]

yeah, I know. An artists rendition of space junk.

Could be a rendition of the AIDs virus too.

Something about big and small things they have problems with.

[crimethink]

This could go so wrong...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome

[Horn]

Tethers at the edge of space can also be used to generate huge amounts of electricity,

Maybe Japan will attempt to beam that energy back down to Earth in microwave form, like a samsung cellphone charger Kim Jong-un don't sleep too close to it...

[Down1]

This failed.
Maybe next time.

The agency continued to troubleshoot and attempt to deploy the tether through Saturday (Feb. 4), but alas, the Japanese experiment burned up in the atmosphere without a space-junk tether success.
http://www.space.com/35581-japanese-cargo-craft-falls-to-earth.html


http://www.space.com/35581-japanese-cargo-craft-falls-to-earth.html

[Glass]

hehe... perhaps the next couple million $$ will be more successful. The way to get really really really rich is to scam the Tax Payer.

44 Pound - Counter weight

As illustrated by a video, the Japanese agency's plan is to use the electrified tether — counter-weighted by a 20 kilogram (44-pound) end mass — to slow down and redirect space junk into a safe but fiery reentry into the atmospher

December 14 2016 = 14 (1+4 =5) + 12 (1+2=3) + 20 + 16 = 5 + 3 + 20 + 16 = 44.

According to JAXA, the Kounotori is scheduled to dock at the International Space Station on Dec. 14; the tether won't be unleashed until the Kounotori leaves the space station bearing a new cargo of waste — with the entire craft destined to burn up on reentry.

Electrodynamic Tether = 97
Craft "fell back to earth on date of Super Bowl 51 at the end of the 97th NFL Season.

Anyone see this
It intentionally burned up in Earth's atmosphere at 10:06 a.m. EST on Sunday (12:06 a.m. Japan StandardTime), according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (http://www.space.com/22672-japan-aerospace-exploration-agency.html)

Shirley someone would have seen this "shooting star".

Can you see all the trash and space debris?
http://www.space.com/images/i/000/062/427/i02/htv-6.jpg?1486165080?interpolation=lanczos-none&downsize=640

I'm also curios what planet this was orbiting?

[ximmy]

its hard to work in space with space junk floating around...

EEK!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4nL-eoqBPA

[Cebu_4_2]

its hard to work in space with space junk floating around...

EEK!

Was an entertaining movie.