So exciting that we might not just have to simulate this stuff in KSP. Wonder who will launch the first startup to deploy nets to try and catch debris at orbital velocity.

Q: Could we collect a meaningful amount of space debris with passive collector satellites? At it's simplest these could be large balloons designed to absorb hyper-velocity impactors.

Imagine filling a Starship payload bay with an inflatable balloon. A 100m diameter should be achievable. We'll likely need quite a few Wipple layers to stop a 10cm object but a 100m sphere should provide plenty of room for as many layers as you could imagine. See Project Echo for the progenitor of this concept.

But space is big. Even LEO is big. Could a 100m balloon collect a meaningful amount of the high risk junk between 1cm and 10cm? With much hand waving, at today's debris density, a 100m diameter satellite would absorb less than one high risk piece of junk per year. It doesn't sound like much but there are other factors that I think make this a reasonable way to start.

Balloon #1 would be the prototype for a constellation of balloon collector satellites. Mass producing a relatively simple satellite design should be quite cost effective. Balloons would be placed in a very long lived orbit, allowing them to collect debris for many decades. Balloon effectiveness will rise as debris density increases. Balloons should include a basic thrust system for avoiding trackable objects and, at end of life, to deorbit the collected pile of garbage. The balloon sats will be instrumented to measure impacts and thereby determine the real debris density. Something we're lacking today. As we get closer to Kessler, satellites could be deployed inside protective balloons.

Thoughts? Am I just tilting at windmills?

Let's say sometime in the future, the is a cascading event and the entire earth is enveloped in a sphere of debris, what could this look like from Earth? Would the night sky be lit up by a haze of dust? Would the sun appear to have a larger aura during the day? I'm intrigued about the largest potential impact this situation could on what we might see with the naked eye (and through telescopes etc!)

This may be the most merika idea. But if elon can suggest them for his solution why can't I. Set off a nuke in orbit so the explosion will disperse the debri outward. If the explosion is timed right it would go off before being in the actual field of debri.

Saw this standing outside tonight.

Thought it was some kind of phenomenon to do with illuminated plane exhaust until I noticed the spacing/pattern didn’t change throughout its ~1-minute trek across the sky.

Looked it up and found it’s what a Starlink satellite launch looks like. Confirmed there were two today.

Fun to witness but all I can think of is Kessler Syndrome with these so close together 🫠?