DARPA's plan to recycle the orbiting satellite graveyard
Posted 12.14.2012 at 9:00 am
12 Comments
Approximately 1,300 nonfunctional satellites sit in a graveyard orbit 22,000 miles above Earth—and Darpa has plans for them. Recycling dead satellite parts in space could be 10 times cheaper than building and sending up new satellites, says Darpa program manager Dave Barnhart. Earlier this year, the agency started the Phoenix project, which will use robots to salvage parts from decommissioned satellites as soon as 2015. First step: figuring out how to recycle parabolic antennas, which have no moving parts or electronics and thus tend to outlive the satellites they’re attached to. Eventually robots could scavenge solar-power arrays and internal components, too.
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If only we could help North Korea obtain this technology. Honestly we could create so many jobs to help the people that may get laid off after Christmas. What would Jesus do.
from Northfield, Vt
it would be intersting thought if you could build an orbital solar farm in space with the recycled solar panels.....next thought would be about how to get that power down....
DARPA must have already thought of this, but how useful are recycled satellite components going to be when they have already been in space for years, exposed to radiation, charged particles, and high-speed dust? It seems like you would need to melt them down and create new and more modern components with the raw materials. But of course we don't have any manufacturing facilities in orbit that could do that.
How cute, I have been copied.
Just so you know, 69, those are 'YOUR' comments.
I suspect by the time a satellite has stopped working, pretty much of its useful value is ka-put too
I wonder if other countries have a legal right to object to their satellite being taken, even if it's considered junk.
Do we want other countries taking our old satellites too?
No one person owns space.
Yet Earth occupies space and people have divided up ownership of Earth.
If we move a little Earth in space, can I then say that space is mine?
And if Earth is similar to any matter we put in space, then what gives us the right to take other peoples satellites?
About the one way anyone can own someone else’s satellite fairly, is if it lands in their back yard back on Earth.
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See life in all its beautiful colors, and
from different perspectives too!
from Salt Lake City, Utah
Yeah, some parts will be salvageable, but I think most electronic components should/will probably be scrapped/recycled, we just need an inexpensive way of returning recyclables to earth, or building a space -based recycling plant. Antenna, lenses, possibly fuel-cells/batteries/capacitors and solar arrays will be good resources for repairs in functional satellites. It may even be possible to create Frankenstein sats from old, dead ones. Woo, the satellite zombie Apocalypse starts with the Phoenix Project!
If there is a way to make a profit, salvage will happen.
Else old junk will just need to find its fiery demise and make room for the new gadgets and gizmos of SPACE!
@Space
When America planted a flag on the moon we claimed it as ours. All you would need to do is plant your flag into the aether of space and it will all be yours. Then you can charge a fee to all those people putting their sats on your property. Speaking of which, if America owns the moon why aren't we charging all the other countries for using our moonlight. just sayin...
dontcallmechief,
Just to muddle the boundaries of space and your declaration of ownership of it.
Just remember actual space can be something that is moving in the great cosmos.
The acre you might own Earth, well stakes they plotted its boundaries have since been left behind long ago, since the Earth is spinning, traveling through the cosmos and the space of all this is traveling in is flying through the cosmos too.
Space itself actually can be a moving thing.
Oh, just because we put an American Flag on the moon, I do not believe it made it legally ours. And while it’s fun to think about picking up satellite space junk and calling it our own, it still does belong to someone else, who might object to us taking it.
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See life in all its beautiful colors, and
from different perspectives too!
@ space
When US planted the flag on the moon, it was claimed for all mankind. If I remember correctly. But maybe it was just media hype at the time.
For satellites a form of marine salvage law might apply. If you find a ship on the open ocean unmanned and out of control, you can claim it. If it is just out of control and the owners accept your assistance the ship will be partially yours. Depending on the degree of assistance and the value of the vessel you will be reimbursed. So if a satellite is out of control, I feel it should be yours for the taking.
I missed where in the article it said we were going to randomly start cutting up other countries spacecraft. No one in their right mind just grabs something belonging to someone else without at least asking.
Pretty sure there is an understood "What's ours is our and what's yours is yours" in space, just like other international non-militarized zones like Antartica.