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Earth-orbit technology?

Mock Turtle

Oh my, did I say that!
Premium Member
Esa mulls Solaris plan to beam solar energy from space

"Our team of scientists have found no technical show-stoppers to prevent us from having space-based solar power," he said.

Is there no issue from all the space debris and other stuff possibly damaging such structures? Given that the larger the object in space, the more likely it might be hit by space debris or similar. Even the Webb space telescope has already been hit and damaged by micrometeorites, and this isn't even in close orbit around the Earth. Should we wait until we have good defences against such issues?
 

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
Esa mulls Solaris plan to beam solar energy from space

"Our team of scientists have found no technical show-stoppers to prevent us from having space-based solar power," he said.

Is there no issue from all the space debris and other stuff possibly damaging such structures? Given that the larger the object in space, the more likely it might be hit by space debris or similar. Even the Webb space telescope has already been hit and damaged by micrometeorites, and this isn't even in close orbit around the Earth. Should we wait until we have good defences against such issues?

What they could do is build a giant space dumpster, then have a space shuttle with a giant magnet go around and collect all the space debris in orbit and put it in the dumpster. Then, they can send the dumpster to Mars to be used later as scrap metal when constructing our Mars colonies in the future.
 

HonestJoe

Well-Known Member
Is there no issue from all the space debris and other stuff possibly damaging such structures? Given that the larger the object in space, the more likely it might be hit by space debris or similar. Even the Webb space telescope has already been hit and damaged by micrometeorites, and this isn't even in close orbit around the Earth. Should we wait until we have good defences against such issues?
It is a very real issue but it wouldn't be significantly different for a larger structure given that there is a lot of space (even just in that orbital region) so this would still be tiny in the grand scheme of things. So, they'd be able to use a lot of the same techniques to reduce the risk and potential impact.

Large debris fields are tracked and so steps can be taken if they're due to intersect an orbit (turning fragile elements away, closing covers etc.) and the general design would account for resistance to such strikes (protecting exposed elements, including redundancy to mitigate failures etc.). Also, any long-term infrastructure would need and have routine maintenance flights, so any damaged elements could be repaired or replaced, regardless of the cause. So, as the quote suggests, while being one of many important aspects for them to consider, as could even shift the cost-benefit balance beyond viability, it wouldn't be an automatic show-stopper.
 
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