Talk:Kessler Syndrome
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Added link in references to Planet ES 71.214.248.99 19:15, 16 March 2007 (UTC)SYONYK
Maybe at some point we could work in "Planetes" the anime, which refers to the Kessler Syndrome. (this comment by User:Cyde)
I've rewritten parts of the article and brought it more into line with Wikipedia:Guide to layout (and added reference to Planetes), but it still reads a little too conversationally for an encyclopedia entry.
Also, I tried to find a proper reference to Donald Kessler's work, but had no luck, just a few articles mentioning or quoting him. I know Kessler Syndrome is a legitimate, acknowledged term, but the article really needs a reference to the paper or publication in which the scenario was first described, if indeed it originated in print. Heliocentric 21:31, 8 November 2005 (UTC)
- Donald Kessler wrote a paper, "Collisional cascading: The limits of population growth in low earth orbit", Advances in Space Research, Volume 11, Number 12, 1991, pg 63-66. I can't find the article online, without requiring a subscription to a service. I've read the article, but it doesn't talk about a "syndrome". I suspect someone coined the phrase after reading the paper. -Taka2007 06:19, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
The example syndrome-causing collision sounds like it came from Planetes. The anime is meticulous in its science, but could we still get some figures? --Kizor 15:25, 9 January 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Solutions?
Although too much speculation could go into the realm of Original Research, I was wondering if this article should have a section on proposed solutions to Kessler Syndrome. Most involve merely not making the problem worse, but other potential solutions have been propsed, such as Arthur C. Clarke's Operation Cleanup from Fountains of Paradise, to zapping fragments with lasers. I don't really know if the physics of this works out, but what I'm wondering is if there could someday be massive Aerogel "nets" (like giant versions of Stardust's sample collectors) put in orbit, each measuring acres in size. They could be deployed as shields around sensitive satellites or just rove around debris heavy space, capturing small particles while the larger bits would be vaporized with lasers or simply grabbed with nets once velocity is matched. Searches for solutions turned up this:
Space_debris#Mitigation_measures,
and various Slashdot postings reveal that I'm hardly the first to make such speculations.
