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Posted by manofsanATyahoo.com on September 5, 2006, 1:43 am
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Kent Paul Dolan wrote:
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> Jim Owens wrote:
> > Any orbiting paint flakes striking the cloud would
> > be decelerated and de-orbit rather quickly.
> I suspect both you and I are underestimating just
> how huge a quantity of gas would be required to make
> a difference. The earth's atmosphere is measured in
> quantities like _gigatons_ of CO2 added per year,
> and that to achieve a small fraction of a percent
> total concentration.
I could be wrong but I suspect the OP was suggesting a small,
targetted, localised cloud to deorbit specific objects rather than a
huge, planet-covering blanket that would slow down *everything*
currently up there.
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>From reading the OP I envisaged a kind of Planetes (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes ) scenario, with a (probably
unmanned) vehicle up there for the express purpose of intercepting and
squirting gas at any particular bits of debris deemed problematic by
ground control.
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> > Any orbiting paint flakes striking the cloud would
> > be decelerated and de-orbit rather quickly.
> I suspect both you and I are underestimating just
> how huge a quantity of gas would be required to make
> a difference. The earth's atmosphere is measured in
> quantities like _gigatons_ of CO2 added per year,
> and that to achieve a small fraction of a percent
> total concentration.