Space Debris: My Space Garbage Cone
Martin C. Boire
www.TruthForUs.com

August 22, 2008

The amount of debris from our activities which is orbiting the earth increases the difficulty to use space because of the danger of collusions.

I suggest a simple, semi-passive solution to the problem. I say semi-passive vs. active in the sense that an engineer uses rigid vs. flexible design. It also ought to be comparatively cheaper.

I suggest a cone-shaped space garbage truck, lined inside and out with Kevlar®, its walls thickening toward its base, and its base a solid slug. The walls gradually thicken and the base is a slug due to the force of impact with debris.

I can think of two approaches to the inner wall surface. One, make them smooth so that objects glance or slide down them to the base. Two, cover them with angled protrusions that cause the debris to ricochet several times, lessening the impact of entering debris.

Debris entering the garbage cone will gradually fill it from the bottom up.

When it is full, let it fall back to earth in a safe location, burring up along the way.

NASA tracks the location of most all space. This must include the speed and direction. A course for the garbage cone can thus be plotted which has it approaching the debris from behind, instead of head-on. Or it can orbit backwards, facing the oncoming debris, but at a slower speed.

Place the instrumentation package on the outside, about one-fourth of the way back to protect it from debris, and allow access for service if desired. Mounting it on foam to insulate from impact shocks might be a good idea.

Locate thrusters on the outside for maneuvering. There might be workable passive solar or other methods of which I am not knowledgeable. Place thruster fuel canisters on the outside, perhaps replaceable, though with proper design and planning it seems unnecessary. The need to maneuver would be calculated on all the obvious factors, but it seems maneuvering would be necessary due to impact with the entering debris.

The optimum size of the garbage cone would be a function of the size of the debris it was sent to remove, and how long it would take it to fill to a desirable point for re-entry. Which suggests there could be several of different sizes. It also appears the conical shape would allow several to be carried into orbit as a group.

Another option would be to not have it reenter immediately, but remain in orbit as one object to track instead of the thousands of smaller objects and particles it collected, its orbit slowly decaying.

A drawing appears below.

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