On Tue, 10 Jul 2001 16:05:44 Phillip H. Zakas wrote:
>
>
>you know one of the things i'd like to do is go into the waste removal
>business in orbit. lots of junk up there...would like to launch a satellite
>with a long finger attached to it and poke stuff out of orbit. the "nudge".
>who'd pay? it would be quite an unfornate event if a satellite were
>mistaken as a piece of debris...or if debris suddenly appeared in a launch
>window ;)
>
>phillip
>
There is lots of junk up there. Schemes to de-orbit satellites at the end of their
useful life have been put forward but they always fail on the liability issue.
Apparently if a satellite falls out of orbit it is an "act of god" and the
owner/insurer is not responsible for damages, but if the satellite is deliberately
de-orbitted the owner/insurer is on the hook. No one, partiucularly the insurance
companies wants to try it. This despite a high degree of confidence in being able to
bring a satellite down in a hopefully empty patch of ocean. Insurance companies are
very risk averse.
Jim
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