Quote:
Originally Posted by Jens
I can think of two problems for the practicality.
One is the cost and energy involved. Ferrying space junk to some location would require an enormous amount of energy. It would seem more efficient to simply launch a spaceship with lots of carbon on board, if that's what you need.
A second consideration: isn't space junk mostly metal, which is not needed? I wonder how much carbon and nitrogen there is among the space junk. Sure, there's plastic, but is there really enough to make it efficient?
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But that's the point. We could intentionally use materials that would be useful. Why not make greater use of carbon fiber composites or plastics high in carbon? I'm sure with a little imagination almost everything that is sent up could be reusable.
As for the junk ferrying problem, as mentioned in the show, NASA is already planning on building robots and such to help remove debris from orbit and fetch satellites for repair. There's too much stuff in orbit now, the junk needs to be cleaned up. A space dump would make sense.
Oh, and just because metals are available on the moon doesn't mean they'll be easier to mine, refine, and forge than it would be to recycle materials that have already been made.