Need them to fire “parachutes” at satellites. The material will change the center of mass making the satellite difficult to control, obscure antenna and solar panels, and increase the small amounts of drag satellites experience causing them to use more fuel trying to correct orientation and de-orbit far sooner. No extra debris in orbit.
The problem with kinetic kill anti-satellite weapons is that it creates debris clouds. Unless the satellite is at a low altitude and about to de-orbit, that’s generally bad.
No idea if anyone has done anything to make this more than an idea, but if you want to de-orbit someone else’s satellite safely you could use a laser broom. Whe you vaporise stuff with a laser, the material that ablates off of the object imparts a bit of thrust to that object. This means that zapping a satellite with a laser can potentially slow it down just like pushing it with a rocket. It also has the benefit of being useable on any other troublesome debris, and it can be reused between jobs (assuming you solved the engineering challenges of Big Space Laser)
Kessler is inevitable. Today, no one will cancel satellite launch because others asked them not to. Since humanity is not capable of cooperating we will end up with satellites Cold War. We actually in it already. I’d rather let them learn the hard way and make them all crash, than use it for military advantage. Yeah, some satellites are useful like wildfire monitoring and GNSS, others are either flex or military. Maybe loosing all those useful one will make humanity cooperate and lunch only what really necessary in coordinated and transparent way
Looks like it’s time to put some guns on satellites
Need them to fire “parachutes” at satellites. The material will change the center of mass making the satellite difficult to control, obscure antenna and solar panels, and increase the small amounts of drag satellites experience causing them to use more fuel trying to correct orientation and de-orbit far sooner. No extra debris in orbit.
The problem with kinetic kill anti-satellite weapons is that it creates debris clouds. Unless the satellite is at a low altitude and about to de-orbit, that’s generally bad.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_debris_producing_events
Then maybe a rocket that sticks to the target and pushes it out of orbit. Maybe down to the atmosphere if in LEO or away if geosync.
No idea if anyone has done anything to make this more than an idea, but if you want to de-orbit someone else’s satellite safely you could use a laser broom. Whe you vaporise stuff with a laser, the material that ablates off of the object imparts a bit of thrust to that object. This means that zapping a satellite with a laser can potentially slow it down just like pushing it with a rocket. It also has the benefit of being useable on any other troublesome debris, and it can be reused between jobs (assuming you solved the engineering challenges of Big Space Laser)
You’re describing drone warfare in space. Neat…
Kessler is inevitable. Today, no one will cancel satellite launch because others asked them not to. Since humanity is not capable of cooperating we will end up with satellites Cold War. We actually in it already. I’d rather let them learn the hard way and make them all crash, than use it for military advantage. Yeah, some satellites are useful like wildfire monitoring and GNSS, others are either flex or military. Maybe loosing all those useful one will make humanity cooperate and lunch only what really necessary in coordinated and transparent way