DARPA's Giant Space Junk Net Could Remove Almost All Orbiting Debris - Polidicks

[QUOTE]DARPA has a thing for butterfly tech. Last week it was sensors based on butterfly wings. This week, it's a space junk capturing vehicle armed with 200 nets that gathers space garbage, much as a lepidopterist would net butterflies for a specimen collection. The technology was presented on Friday at the annual Space Elevator conference. The Electrodynamic Debris Eliminator, or EDDE, is the brainchild of engineers at Star Inc. and ostensibly the DARPA backers that are funding its development. In practice, EDDE would zip around low earth orbit snaring bits of space garbage in its many nets where they cannot be a menace to other orbiting spacecraft. Star's CEO estimates that over seven years, 12 EDDE craft could clean up all 2,465 objects over 4.5 pounds that are currently being tracked through LEO. Once EDDE has a piece of space junk cornered, it can either hurl it into the South Pacific where it has little chance of doing any harm, or put it on a trajectory to burn up during re-entry. Or, Star insists, the pieces of junk could be recycled right there in space to create raw materials for the construction of future orbiting space stations or satellites. It sounds pretty out there, but Star has already begun testing the tech and should conduct a test flight in 2013. If that succeeds, EDDEs could begin a full cleanup operation in LEO by 2017.[/QUOTE] Source: [url]http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-08/darpas-space-junk-remover-will-net-orbiting-debris-leo[/url]

God damn DARPA how did you get so damned cool? Also i like the 3rd idea the most, recycling the materials in orbit for new stations.

Wow. Innovative.

This is good. If we're building orbiting habitats, we're going to need to reclaim every ounce of scrap that we can.

I really hope this actually gets built, It sounds like it would need a lot of funding.

If it's by DARPA they'll get the funding.

[QUOTE=bravehat;24115887]If it's by DARPA they'll get the funding.[/QUOTE] Yeah no kidding. Do YOU want to be the one to tell DARPA they won't get the funding for a project? :-P

[QUOTE=bravehat;24114255]God damn DARPA how did you get so damned cool? Also i like the 3rd idea the most, recycling the materials in orbit for new stations.[/QUOTE] DARPA has always been cool....we're all typing on the grandson of DARPANET..

[QUOTE=GunFox;24115984]Yeah no kidding. Do YOU want to be the one to tell DARPA they won't get the funding for a project? :-P[/QUOTE] They invented sprayable black ice, the least dense solid in the world (iirc) and are working on making a whole new "species" that will fight in wars for us. To be honest if they asked for funding I'd give them double for fear of testing some insane weapon on me :ohdear:

[QUOTE=GunFox;24115984]Yeah no kidding. Do YOU want to be the one to tell DARPA they won't get the funding for a project? :-P[/QUOTE] METAL GEARRRRRRrrr? [editline]10:15PM[/editline] [QUOTE=bravehat;24116348]They invented sprayable black ice, the least dense solid in the world (iirc) and are working on making a whole new "species" that will fight in wars for us. To be honest if they asked for funding I'd give them double for fear of testing some insane weapon on me :ohdear:[/QUOTE] METAL GEARRRRRrrr.

[QUOTE=bravehat;24116348]and are working on making a whole new "species" that will fight in wars for us.[/QUOTE] [IMG]http://a.imageshack.us/img517/3694/2703deathclawfallout3.jpg[/IMG]

this is pretty cool. maybe they are after cleaning up space someone can actually do something in space. you know. something impressive. like a large space station that would be much easier than all governments make it out to be.

DARPA. Goddamn you're cool.

this is why its good to have a large DoD budget

[QUOTE=Ridge;24116123]DARPA has always been cool....we're all typing on the grandson of DARPANET..[/QUOTE] Yeah and most people on the internet don't even know this.

Thank god, I don't have to worry about frozen pieces of astronaut crap blowing a hole in me.

It's ideas like this that makes me love clicking on threads that begin with DARPA.

[QUOTE=Canuhearme?;24118687]It's ideas like this that makes me love clicking on threads that begin with DARPA.[/QUOTE] Everytime I see their name in an article, I go straight here.

Looks like Mass Effect needs to rethink Earth's atmosphere

[QUOTE=Canuhearme?;24118687]It's ideas like this that makes me love clicking on threads that begin with DARPA.[/QUOTE] Agreed :v: Next Sunday A.D.: "DARPA solves problems with Bussard fusion Ramjet" "DARPA launches Sun shade to reduce Climate Change" "DARPA creates wormhole to Yuggoth" "DARPA creates first Artificial Intelligence, hilarity ensues"

Holy shit, DARPA is fucking awesome :monocle:

This is too useful, therefore it will never happen as it is far too beneficial to mankind. :colbert:

[QUOTE=Eudoxia;24118842]Agreed :v: Next Sunday A.D.: "DARPA solves problems with Bussard fusion Ramjet" "DARPA launches Sun shade to shut up "Climate Change" whiners" "DARPA creates wormhole to Yuggoth" "DARPA creates first Artificial Intelligence, hilarity ensues"[/QUOTE] Small fix

Climate change is happening man, there's no doubt about it.

I gotta look into this DARPA, only really know about it from Metal Gear Solid

[QUOTE=Super_Poo;24120357]I gotta look into this DARPA, only really know about it from Metal Gear Solid[/QUOTE] DARPA, also known as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is an agency of the United States Department of Defense. The purpose of DARPA is, as they say, to research and design new technologies that are above and beyond anything being designed by any rival country. Hell, this is their mission statement: [quote]DARPA’s mission is to prevent technological surprise to the US, but also to create technological surprise for its enemies.[/quote] If you want to learn more, this page (yes, it's Wikipedia) describes it perfectly: [URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA[/URL]

DARPAs basically the insane scientist in movies who actually gets funding

Nah, Nikolai Tesla was the movie mad scientist...

DARPA has been coming up with such good ideas. They are very good at what they do, I just wish their stuff would be operational quicker. I mean 2017? Jeez.