Who will pay for the fishing net in space to protect us from all the junk?

[sailingaway]

http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/02/02/we-need-to-build-a-fishing-net-in-space-to-protect-us-from-all-of-the-junk/

http://www.crunchgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/spacejunknet.jpg

[oyarde]

It may have to be a Chinese project :)

[fisharmor]

Wow.
Well, I guess since everyone is jumping off the global warming bandwagon, we really do need to start feeling things out to find the next global emergency which requires an all-encompassing world government and drastic reduction in living standards in the developed world.
I mean, things aren't going to go to shit by themselves!

[Zippyjuan]

IT would be tons cheaper and require smaller "nets" to make a bubble for each satellite. Or give them umbrellas. Satallites have different orbits but let us just consider a geosynchronus one (its orbit is the same rate as the Earth's rotation so it seems to be in one place such as communications satallites). That is 22,240 miles above the earth. Double that to 44,480 miles and add in the diameter of the earth (7,926 miles) to get the diameter of our net and we get 52,406 miles. Better include some "safe distance" above the satellites (there are satellites in higher orbits too) and say 55,000 miles. Surface of a sphere is 4x pi x r squared. Raduis in this case 27,500 miles. 4x 3.14x 756,000,000 =9,495,000,000 square miles of netting. Density would have to be pretty tight because a well placed meteorite of a marble sized rock could disable a satellite. Me thinks pretty impossible, not to mention impractical, to build. Not to mention needing most of the resouces of the world to create one that sized.

[oyarde]

IT would be tons cheaper and require smaller "nets" to make a bubble for each satellite. Or give them umbrellas. Satallites have different orbits but let us just consider a geosynchronus one (its orbit is the same rate as the Earth's rotation so it seems to be in one place such as communications satallites). That is 22,240 miles above the earth. Double that to 44,480 miles and add in the diameter of the earth (7,926 miles) to get the diameter of our net and we get 52,406 miles. Better include some "safe distance" above the satellites (there are satellites in higher orbits too) and say 55,000 miles. Surface of a sphere is 4x pi x r squared. Raduis in this case 27,500 miles. 4x 3.14x 756,000,000 =9,495,000,000 square miles of netting. Density would have to be pretty tight because a well placed meteorite of a marble sized rock could disable a satellite. Me thinks pretty impossible, not to mention impractical, to build. Not to mention needing most of the resouces of the world to create one that sized.

Of course it is impractical . I suggest getting young commie/green volunteers to send into orbit to work on this problem :)