Recent content by Aplu

As a private individual who has put some thought into what such a treaty should look like, may I here present (Blare of Trumpets, Drumrolls, and Maestro is ushered onto the stage): http://masalai.free.fr/Outer-Space-Neutralization-Treaty.html FWLIW, I wrote it during the SDI phase of the Third...

I was reading said article and I got up to "who would fund it" and I asked myself, who finds salvage in Earth's seas? The answer is, to use the words of one Twoflower, acquaintance of one failed wizard Rincewind, "In-sewer-ants", which indirectly causes the worst fire Ankh-Morpork has yet...

I think the first thing to do is to establish that there is a legal obligation to remove space junk, basing this on the law of maritime salvage that derelict sea vessels are removed from sea lanes to reduce the risk of harm. Financed of course by insurance the way maritime insurance finances...

The Outer Space Treaty, the Registration convention and the Liability Convention cover in part, this. But they don't go nearly far enough. On the high seas, there is a long-standing understanding that derelict vessels must be removed, for the safety of the other vessels using those sea lanes...

Which, pardon my ($language_of_choice_usually_French) this argument is a load of codswallop and Bovine Scatology. The Soviet Union and the United States agreed in a number of negotiations known collectively as the Arms Control Talks of the 60s, 70s, 80s and so on, that "national technical means...

For what very very little it's worth, not being an astrophysicist let alone a cosmologist, I keep wondering, wouldn't gravitational radiation also occur from a black hole? After all, it is gobbling up stars' worth of matter, even if it's not all at once, and wouldn't that cause gravitational...

It's about time, I'd say. The situation with Russia seems quite dire, and they've got several decades' worth of designing the building good working launch vehicles. I think they should take that step, and start launching their own astronauts. And they should ask Elon Musk about getting licenses...

I think one thing that should be done first is to adapt the already existing and working international maritime salvage legal regime to the problem of space debris. The problem with having the military involved, I'm afraid, is that it makes salvage and removal of space debris into a first-class...

I've been rabbiting on for ages about the need for the adaption of the hugely successful international Maritime Salvage legal regime to Earth Orbit, to keep the process above-board and prevent nasty suspicious minds doing what nasty suspicious minds do best (if you can use that word "best" in...

I would advise that they do it, precisely because of the precedent otherwise set if they do nothing. And do it ASAP, with all the evidence of harm done to more than just their own interests.

I would like to suggest that the United States, the European Union, and the like, turn this little gem I found on the Net a while ago, into a Uniting For Peace resolution: http://masalai.free.fr/Outer-Space-Neutralization-Treaty.html Article 19: The hostile acts and threats of hostile acts...

@Pogo and @sam85geo, personally I'd rather have a set of laser-carrying space vehicles (perhaps the size of the Soyuz, or maybe smaller) with power sources and ion drives, that can track and chase an asteroid in a dangerous orbit, and by ablating parts of it, change its orbit somewhat. You...

Aren't there a couple of otherwise excess space telescopes aka spy satellite telescopes the CIA gifted NASA with, a few years back? What's wrong with dedicating them to Spaceguard duty, keeping track of asteroids on a potential collision course with Earth?

Astroelectricity, supernetwork international interconnected power grids, and near-universal renewable energy sources at the personal level - that's what I think will keep the current system setup humming. On the other hand, doofuses/doofi in certain positions of power might decide to muck it up...

Which is why I keep pushing for the adaption of the maritime salvage legal regime for space debris mitigation. It establishes an open market and nobody accuses maritime salvage companies of nefarious military purposes hidden behind their operations. Besides of course keeping the shipping lanes...