Thursday, September 1, 2011

Jawas … Never around when you need them.



This was a line by character Kyle Katarn in Star Wars .

BBC News reported today that "Space Junk is at a tipping point". article

Floating space garbage has been accumulating with every mission since the Mercury, Soyuz, Gemini & Apollo days. You would think that scientists and engineers would be bright enough to know you can't do good work in a messy lab or shop and you wouldn't want to drive on a highway covered with random junk cars and old parts strewn about.

But every bit of junk they've left lying around up there has finally accumulated to the point that they have to track and inventory all the debris -- over 500,000 bits of it -- and the problem gets amplified when the garbage collides. A recent collision with a Russian satellite created ANOTHER 2000 bits!

Which brings us to solutions - Where are the Jawas when you need them? "The
Jawas have a tendency to pick up anything that's not tied down, Luke"
Owen Lars to Luke Skywalker

So some really bright individuals would do well to come up with the bright idea that makes space trash collection into a commercially viable enterprise. Design a self-feeding garbage collection/recyling unit that runs like a giant orbital Space-Roomba. Call it the "Junk Acquiring Waste Assembly" or JAWA.