[Interview+] Removing Space Debris with Real-Life Star Trek Tech
BONUS PART STARTS AT 24:29
Watch the video here (with no ads) or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/GfEzOHGoAuU
🟣 Guest: Amy Haft
📜 Spacecraft electrostatic tractor using a power-constrained pulsed high-energy high-current electron beam https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S027311772600075X?via%3Dihub
The number of satellites constantly grows. As the result, space debris is becoming more and more of a concern. A new study suggests using practically real-life Star Trek tech to use an electron tractor beam to tug broken satellites around the orbit.
00:00 Intro
01:11 The state of space debris
04:25 Satellite tractor beam
14:07 Alternative applications
24:29 Tracking objects via plasma trails
39:23 Current obsessions
44:29 Final thoughts
Comments (5)
Kessler Syndrome should be a movie!!
Life imitates science fiction? I once read that Gene Roddenberry hired scientist advisors in creating Star Trek. Wouldn't we like to know that process from explaining physics, to the possibilities that were theorized at the time, to creating the science fiction license used in Star Trek? If Tractor beams and Deflector shields ever become a real thing, perhaps it won't be like Star Trek proposes but maybe a combination of groups of specific devices like the electron gun Amy describes. And then there are those Star Trek sensors that can detect life on the surface of a M class Planet. Planetary atmosphere's currently are calculated using the measured sunlight passing through an planets atmosphere and a signature is derived from that wave form detected. And Amy wants to use Plasma signatures from <10 cm objects. She's making our first Tractor beams and Sensors! You Rock Amy!
Using charge to dock is getting dangerously close to Kerbal docking. I’m all in for this.
This was so freaking cool! Parallels with sci-fi tech on so many levels (detecting plasma eddies, pulsing and tuning the beam for different uses). I'm curious to know more about the electron gun. This can't be as simple as the emitters we've had for over a century already (e.g., every CRT had one). I'm going to have to dig some more on this. Thank you for this great interview!
Great interview. Tractor beam on a spacecraft maybe in my lifetime. Didn't see that coming. Very cool.