Space Debris Affirmative



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Orion Solvency (3/6)

Orion cleans small debris - Large debris cleanup is unimportant and happening in the squo, small debris is almost impossible to track and can cause enormous problems


Ganguli, Crabtree, Rudkov, Chappie 4-7-11 (Gurudas, Christopher, Leonid, Scott, Plasma Physics Researcher at Naval Research Laboratory in Washington D.C, Icarus Research Incorporation, Naval Center For Space Technology Naval Research Laboratory, Cornell University Library- Space Physics, A Concept For Elimination of Small Orbital Debris, April 7, 2011, http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1104/1104.1401.pdf, pgs 1-2, NG)

Space debris can be broadly classified into two categories: (i) large debris with dimension larger than 10 cm and (ii) small debris with dimension smaller than 10 cm. The smaller debris are more numerous and are difficult to detect and impossible to individually track. This makes them more dangerous than the fewer larger debris which can be tracked and hence avoided. In addition, there are solutions for larger debris, for example, NRL’s FREND device that can remove large objects from useful orbits and place them in graveyard orbits 1) . To the best of our knowledge there are no credible solutions for the small debris. Damage from even millimeter size debris can be dangerous. Fig. 1 shows examples of damage by small debris collision. The source of small debris is thought to be collision between large objects 2) , such as spent satellites, which can lead to a collisional cascade 3) . Perhaps a more ominous source of smaller debris is collision between large and small objects as we describe in the following. Since such collisions will be more frequent our focus is to develop a concept for eliminating the small orbital debris which can not be individually tracked to evade collision. 2. Small Debris Population The LEO debris population is primarily localized within a 50 degree inclination angle and mostly in the sun synchronous nearly circular orbits 4) . The distribution of larger trackable debris peaks around 800 km altitude. The smaller debris, although impossible to track individually, can be characterized statistically 5) and the resulting distribution is roughly similar to the tracked debris but peaks at higher (~ 1000 km) altitude. The lifetimes of debris increase with their ballistic coefficient, B , defined as the ratio of mass to area 6) . Debris with B ~ 3 − 5 kg/m 2 peak around 1000 km and their lifetime becomes 25 years or less below 900 km. Above 900 km the lifetimes can be centuries. Therefore, the task of small debris removal is essentially to reduce the debris orbit height from around 1100 km to below 900 km and then let nature take its course. Today there are about 900 active satellites and about 19,000 Earth-orbiting cataloged objects larger than 10 cm. However, there are countless smaller objects that can not be tracked individually. Unintentional (collision or explosion) or intentional (ASAT event) fragmentation of satellites increases the debris population significantly. For example, the 2007 Chinese ASAT test generated 2400 pieces of large debris and countless smaller ones in the popular sun synchronous orbit at 900 km altitude 7) . A similar increase of the debris population also resulted from the 2009 collision of the Iridium 33 satellite with a spent Russian satellite Kosmos-2251. These collisions are examples of high energy fragmentation where the energy dissipated is several hundreds if not thousands of MJ and the average velocity spread of the fragments could be several hundred m/s. Since the population of smaller debris ~ 10 cm size is at least an order of magnitude higher, their collision frequency with larger objects would correspondingly be an order of magnitude higher. However the energy in such collisions is typically less than 10 MJ

Orion project is cheapest - Using lasers to nudge debris out of orbit is a cheap method


Grossman in 11. (Science journalist, covers physics and astronomy, Wired science, NASA Considers Shooting Space Junk With Lasers, 3-15-2011, http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/lasering-space-junk/. DT)

NASA scientists have suggested shooting space junk with lasers before. But earlier plans relied on military-class lasers that would either destroy an object altogether, or vaporize part of its surface and create little plasma plumes that would rocket the piece of litter away. Those lasers would be prohibitively expensive, the team says, not to mention make other space-faring nations nervous about what exactly that military-grade laser is pointing at. The laser to be used in the new system is the kind used for welding and cutting in car factories and other industrial processes. They’re commercially available for about $0.8 million. The rest of the system could cost between a few and a few tens of millions of dollars, depending on whether the researchers build it from scratch or modify an existing telescope, perhaps a telescope at the Air Force Maui Optical Station in Hawaii or at Mt. Stromlo in Australia. “This system solves technological problems, makes them cheaper, and makes it less of a threat that these will be used for nefarious things,” said space security expert Brian Weeden, a technical adviser for the Secure World Foundation who was not involved in the new study. “It’s certainly very interesting.”


Orion Solvency (4/6)

The ORION laser is effective against metallic and nonmetallic debris depending on what is necessary to remove.


Campbell, 2000 (Jonathan W., Colonel USAFR, Center for Strategy and Technology, Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, Using Lasers in Space, Laser Orbital Debris Removal and Asteroid Deflection, December 2000, http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/cst/csat20.pdf, NG)

Since orbital debris consists of many materials, a debris removal system must be designed with this in mind. The Orion study considered laboratory experiments that were conducted with representative materials and found useful models for the coupling of metals and nonmetals, as shown in Figure 1. The optimum intensity is higher for metals than for nonmetals, since energy tends to he conducted to the interior of the metal. At higher intensities, however, the coupling is higher for metals than for nonmetals because the onset of plasma formation above the optimum intensity for nonmetals occurs at lower intensities. 4 This system would he effective against both metallic and nonmetallic targets in space, and could be effective against materials that arc at higher orbital altitudes


Project Orion can clear out the dangerous space debris in only 2 years, and all space debris larger than 1 cm but with mass less than 100 kg in 4.


Phipps et al. 96 (PhD at Stanford University in plasma physics, NSS, ORION: Clearing near-Earth space debris using a 20-kW, 530-nm, Earth-based, repetitively pulsed lasers, 1996, http://www.nss.org/resources/library/planetarydefense/1996-ORION-ClearingNearEarthSpaceDebrisUsingPulsedLaser-Phipps.pdf, AX)

A laser of just 20 kW average power and state-of-the-art detection capabilities could clear near-Earth space below 1000 km altitude of all space debris larger than 1 cm but less massive than 100 kg in about 4 years, and all debris in the threatening 1 – 20-cm size range in about 2 years of continuous operation. The ORION laser would be sited near the Equator at a high altitude location [e.g., the Uhuru site on Kilimanjaro], minimizing turbulence correction, conversion by stimulated Raman scattering, and absorption of the 530-nm wavelength laser beam. ORION is a special case of Laser Impulse Space Propulsion (LISP), studied extensively by Los Alamos and others over the past four years.


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