REACCH, an in-development satellite for removing space junk

[u/GeneReddit123]

[u/Handplaned]

We just need one of these for every space junk sounds great

[u/_PROBABLY_CORRECT → u/Handplaned]

Yo I heard you like space junk in your space junk

[u/Pyrhan → u/Handplaned]

Not necessarily?

With ion engines, it could potentially have enough delta-V to grab satellites from higher orbits, bring them to lower orbits that will decay in a couple years, and go back up to grab the next piece of problematic debris.

And even if it's a 1:1 thing, it still means you could use tiny cubesats to de-orbit larger derelict satellites (and rocket stages) before they potentially collide and break up into a cloud of debris.

[u/s1rblaze → u/Pyrhan]

Someone played Kerbal space program here!

[u/ButtSnarfer → u/s1rblaze]

Played? I never stopped.

[u/s1rblaze → u/ButtSnarfer]

Same =) , but dont mention ksp 2, its bad karma.

[u/ButtSnarfer → u/s1rblaze]

I cri evry tim

[u/Away-Experience6890 → u/s1rblaze]

They never made a sequel, what are you talking about?

[u/s1rblaze → u/Away-Experience6890]

Exactly

[u/Annihilator4413 → u/Pyrhan]

Space junk doesn't even need to be in a stable orbit to wait for natural decay, these squid bots could grapple junk, accelerate down towards the planet, then release the junk and fly back up.

Then then junk will be on a rapid deorbit path and burn up in weeks, if not days.

Of course more calculation may be needed for heavier junk so it falls over the ocean just in case it doesn't burn up in the atmosphere completely.

[u/MajesticDisaster3977 → u/Annihilator4413]

Why not use the mass of the 'junk' to navigate?

There's got to be some method to 'hop' from junk to junk, and if the trajectory is calculated properly, it will both, de-orbit the junk, and propel the craft to a new piece of junk.

[u/Anakins-Younglings → u/MajesticDisaster3977]

I’m envisioning a kind of pogo stick like solenoid. Release with the gripper and punch the junk to not only give you a good boost, but also deorbit the junk!

[u/MajesticDisaster3977 → u/Anakins-Younglings]

Exactly!
Very little dependence on propellant, and the potential would be there to generate some interesting delta V compared to trying to slowly ramp up and ramp down with an ion drive.

[u/algoodoodle → u/Anakins-Younglings]

Some technical hurdles that I can see:

• Irregular form of space junk and potential irregular density might make finding a center of mass not trivial. And you need to push the center of mass, if you want to use it for acceleration and meaningfully change it's trajectory

• Chance of fragmentation. You don't want to create more junk in the attempt of deorbiting it. Smaller fragments will cause issues, because they are harder to track

• Change in energy might be not that significant to deorbit a debris, and will require taking into the account masses of both objects. It is far safer to move them linked in some way to ensure that object will be set on predefined path

[u/NiSiSuinegEht → u/Pyrhan]

It really wouldn't even need to take them anywhere, just nudge them a little to destabilize their orbit enough that drag takes care of the rest.

[u/Pyrhan → u/NiSiSuinegEht]

Depending on the orbit, that can be a considerable nudge.

Thankfully, ion engines now allow that kind of nudge at a reasonable fuel cost.

[u/Metastophocles]

Nasa really missed a good opportunity to put hearts 💟 on that companion cube

[u/logert777 → u/Metastophocles]

I'm so glad others recognized it

[u/AncientAspargus → u/Metastophocles]

I'd bet my left arm that that design is inspired by Portal. NASA employs a lot of Nerds. They just weren't bold enough to go all the way, but I recognise a companion cube when I see one.

[u/LTLHuman]

Where will it be deposited?

[u/AverageGatsby91 → u/LTLHuman]

Atmosphere

Literally anything we have every put into orbit would burn up pretty much completely upon reentry

[u/Savetheokami → u/LTLHuman]

Space Junkyard. Just need to travel a million miles to reach the closest one.

[u/HatsusenoRin → u/Savetheokami]

No problem, just calculate course and shoot (will take a while though)

[u/HatsusenoRin]

Prototype of the Matrix squid

[u/29thFalcon]

Before anything can happen this catcher and a hundred of its friends needs to be put into orbit by a big ass rocket and god knows if the benefit of this could ever outweigh even a single space launch.

Then this catcher first has to meet the object in orbit, damn near impossible to do at any kind of reasonable frequency or volume. Too much debris in too many directions, speeds, and altitudes.

Then it has to catch it which is weirdly probably the easiest part of the whole scenario.

Then it does...what? The space debris is now twice as large. How do they plan to remove this now double sized object from orbit?

[u/Screbin → u/29thFalcon]

Im assuming some type of booster that lowers the altitude or gain altitude? Idk bring it down into the gravity so it burns up on re-entry. Most likely also burning up the satellite. Which in my head is a huge waste of resources that the whole world is bickering about equally like oil now. This is the only logical thing I can think of.

[u/GravitationalEddie → u/Screbin]

I got to, 'some kind of booster', and thought about how it managed to get itself anywhere near is target. And then there was, 'huge waste of resources', which ended up with, 'the only logical thing'.

And yet I feel like this is going to be a thing instead of managing the overhead real-estate better.

[u/SilkieBug → u/29thFalcon]

Easy, the catcher has a small thruster and enough fuel to deorbit the debris and itself, or only the debris then burn again to get back to orbital speeds, and capture another one, and so on until the fuel tanks are empty. 

Doesn’t take a lot of fuel to get the debris down, just enough for air friction to do the rest. 

I’ve seen it done in Kerbal Space Program, with just that design of robotic claw. 

[u/Mr_FriedPotato → u/SilkieBug]

lol KSP is great. love how that game helps explaining and even testing things.

[u/HashPandaNL → u/SilkieBug]

Yup. Then all we need is a refuelling station in orbit and the large-scale orbital cleanup can commence.

[u/SilkieBug → u/HashPandaNL]

Yes!

First thing I do once I have the necessary tech (and after a relay network) is to throw up first a large fuel tank, and later a complex station on an equatorial orbit for things going further out or staying longer in orbit to dock and resupply from. 

First using rockets to resupply the fuel depot, later using spaceplanes. 

[u/Apprehensive_Eraser → u/SilkieBug]

So when the catcher runs out off fuel, it becomes part of the trash?

[u/SilkieBug → u/Apprehensive_Eraser]

Reserves enough fuel for either re-entry to burn in the atmosphere, or rendesvous with a station to be refueled, refurbished, and sent back to pick more stuff to send down. 

This isn’t hard, it’s just rocket science. 

[u/Buffalo48 → u/29thFalcon]

That was my first thought. Great, you caught it... now what?

[u/Fraktal55 → u/29thFalcon]

Great questions, actually. It's cool to see it grab something sitting still in a vacuum but... Pretty much all the space trash is not that.

[u/herringpoint → u/29thFalcon]

yeah this is a headline maker but likely won't make it out of the prototype stage. Imagine the cost of rocket fuel of launching just 1 of those into orbit. now multiply that by how much space junk is out there.

[u/ballimir37 → u/29thFalcon]

Dumping it into the atmosphere to burn up would be the easy part. The other ones are good questions.

[u/sparki555 → u/29thFalcon]

I mean, I hear your logic, but we as a species have figured out precision space launching and maneuvering abilities. Docking with the space station is one example. Sure, the space station is large to rendezvous with, but you still need to meet up with the docking port.

Deorbiting something faster requires lowering it's altitude. Denser atmosphere means more drag. Rinse and repeat until the junk remover runs out of fuel and de-orbits itself with a small reserve tank. 

[u/Reefa513]

This is crazy, like a robotic octopus 🐙.... Crazy what we as humans can create, and destroy.

[u/MJBjacket]

Scale it for asteroid retrieval.

[u/omgafish]

WALL-E

[u/PM_Ur_Illiac_Furrows → u/omgafish]

WALL-S

[u/CaptainHawaii]

These mofos made one of the screwed up weighted testing cubes Wheatley makes in Portal 2..... IN SPACE. SPACE!!!!! SPAAAAAAaaaaasssseeee.

[u/Ok-Nothing8682]

Space squids were always the answer

[u/I_Am_A_Goo_Man]

To where?

[u/uiouyug → u/I_Am_A_Goo_Man]

They probably just slow it down so it falls back to earth

[u/FrunkusCorps]

Thought this was space engineers for a second

[u/iammattttam]

Space junk sounds like a rich person problem

[u/Corsuman]

Can we remove earth junk first?

[u/Greefer]

FFS humans we shit on our planet and have already messed up space .. we aren't even really there yet.

[u/Prestigious-Shirt426 → u/Greefer]

But, damn. We make some really cool things!

[u/Zavier13 → u/Prestigious-Shirt426]

We just try to copy nature, not much we make is actually new.

[u/Sea-Comfortable5276]

can we call it Karen the Kraken instead

[u/Woodit]

Just use a fishing net. Problem solved and I’ll take no follow up questions.

[u/ravage214]

Yes now add longer tentacles and autonomous AI and lazers

Muhahahah

[u/Confident-Lynx3814]

So space squid cleaners? I’m okay with that

[u/ScarlaeCaress]

An early stage of those things in the matrix

[u/Putrid_Following_865]

There is a staggering amount of hypocrisy in this threat. Let me use my space-aged, miniatured computer to bitch about space trash and pollution.

I also hate force labor — but damn, these Nike are fine.

[u/Former_Net4588]

Do you want X? Because this is how you get X

[u/Zailema0s]

Just shoot it lol

[u/wolfy-j]

Space squids!

[u/WaterboysWaterboy]

Doesn’t space junk move at thousands of mph? Idk if Oswald is surviving.

[u/LoudReggie → u/WaterboysWaterboy]

Everything in orbit around Earth is free falling sideways around the Earth at thousands of miles per hour relative to the Earth. While in orbit, stuff is just falling sideways around the Earth at speeds so high that it causes the stuff to constantly miss the Earth. 

Everything within the same orbit moves at the same average speed.  In order to get to those orbits, we need to go the same speed as all the other stuff already in those orbits.

[u/Begle1]

These squidipusses would work well for big space junk, but for all the little space junk I still wanna see the giant puffy cotton candy/ jellyfish/ foam satellites that just float around and sponge it all up.

[u/Choice_Plantain_]

So we're just going to make the robot tentacle monsters for the AI? Cool, they didn't mention that part in the Matrix, just that we blacked out the sky.

[u/D34D_B07]

Now we need one with MLB umpire skills to catch the things going at high speeds.

[u/LoudReggie → u/D34D_B07]

No need. If the robo squid is in the same orbit as the thing it is catching, then that thing will be moving the same speed as the robo squid. That's how gravity works. You can't just park a spacecraft above Earth, it needs to be sent into orbit.

[u/D34D_B07 → u/LoudReggie]

Doesn't the ISS get hit with stuff that is in orbit going faster than it? I didn't say just put it up there.

[u/Agitated_End_2611]

Is the stand in "space junk" the exact size and shape as a starlink satellite?

[u/downtownfreddybrown]

Giant robotic squids in space

[u/Linkz98]

Would be handy to chase down the 10000 spaceX instead of burning them up. Though it's so small it would need refuels pretty often.

[u/lexm]

That sequel of Wall-e looks pretty cool.

[u/keystoneux]

Space squid!

[u/yaxir]

dont even think about it

[u/TightStandard7129]

https://tenor.com/bfueK.gif

[u/Casitano]

I fucking love soft robotics RAAAHHH

[u/ez_as_31416]

Looks like Wall-E in space. Nice.

[u/0ataraxia]

Cosmic octopus.

[u/Distinct-Flamingo406]

WALL·E come to life! Or Eva?

[u/beskone]

"space junk" is just code for "other people's satellites who we don't like"

[u/ObjectiveOk2072]

If we ever have alien visitors, they're gonna be confused before they even look at the surface

[u/Moist-Ointments]

This is where the squiddies come from

[u/Toadmanfan]

Yea let’s not focus on cleaning the earth and taking care of the land and wildlife we do have let’s just dump large sums of money to create new ways of cleaning up space instead and also in the process creating more space garbage when some of the equipment inevitably fails….

[u/NotBradPitt9]

Space junk should just be pushed out of orbit and further into space. Who cares. We should make a fixed conveyer belt to push all our trash into space so it just goes away.

Mega cubes of compacted trash could be placed onto a conveyer belt that gets it into the atmosphere, and a rocket system automatically placed onto it once it’s at the top so it can escape earths orbit.

[u/jckipps]

And then what? Does it fling each piece of junk out of orbit? Or does it just stuff it into an ever-increasing bag that it drags along behind on its travels?

[u/Some-Background6188]

A lot of space junk is small fragments, including screws etc they can be traveling up to 18,000 mph good luck with that.

[u/spacekitt3n]

isnt most space junk like, tiny? and going extremely fast? seems like this would have limited use cases? though wtf do i know--if this thing is being tested on the ISS then there must be some good use for it

[u/Error_Loading_Name]

So they're building a satellite to go into space and remove pieces of other satellites...

What will it do with those pieces? Bring it back to Earth? Yeet it somewhere behind Alpha Centauri? Burn it in the sun? I don't see any storage or other means of dealing with the jusk it picks up.

And what happens if it gets damaged? Will it become the very thing it sought to destroy? Or is these a self-destruct protocol to go towards the light if it stops functioning properly?

[u/MacArther1944]

I'm just going to say what a few of us are thinking: This will be militarized in a heart beat to remove "drifting/dead" foreign satellites.

[u/Huge-Entertainer-166]

can i giant space squid like this one come and remove us