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PandaEven3982 t1_j51czyv wrote

Reply to comment by alaskafish in ClearSpace raises $29 million ahead of first debris removal mission by sillychillly

That's one answer, especially if the final usage is downwell. If it's for orbital or luna construction, you never deorbit to Terra. You thinking parachute/water? I'd rather keep in orbit and start building a space elevator. :-) or a polar shield/mirror :-)

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binormal t1_j51el6d wrote

This mission is just about de-orbiting debris, not trying to capture materials for reuse...

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PandaEven3982 t1_j51h4vd wrote

It's about garbage collection. You seem to be keen to deorbit what they collect. Okay. How many metric tonnes of garbage are we collecting? Is there an estimate?

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binormal t1_j51ntwn wrote

What? From the article:

>This mission will see the ClearSpace use a spacecraft with four articulated arms to de-orbit part of a Vega rocket from low Earth orbit (LEO).

Assuming they're deorbiting the third stage, which has a dry mass of 1315 kg, they would be collecting about 1.315 metric tonnes of garbage.

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PandaEven3982 t1_j51p9h4 wrote

Better hope that parachute works. Might make a good splash at terminal velocity. Keep it in orbit. Smelt when we build the infrastructure.

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