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Postnificent OP t1_jdy1l2v wrote

Reply to comment by WhosAlex992 in Why don’t we use Venus as a dumpster? by Postnificent

No. I keep reading all these articles about these new nuclear pellet engines that are going to cut mars travel to like 5 days, fuel is very light etc… and thought this is a better first use for this technology. I’m sure that instead we will just discard the old ones in orbit and leave them. I have a thorough understanding how all this works and how much it costs. We want to explore but safety first, maybe we should clean up. Ignoring the problem is melting the ice caps right now.

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WhosAlex992 t1_jdy2esg wrote

Oh, you mean debris in orbit? Well, my previous points still stand, but now there is the added problem of the fact that we haven't figured out a viable solution for capturing orbital debris to begin with. And, assuming that we had a viable way of doing so, and the funding to launch missions ferrying literal garbage, why would we needlessly contaminate Venus? We could much more easily just send that garbage out on an escape trajectory and call it a day. Rendezvousing with another planet is an extremely technical and difficult process that requires the right timing and months, it not years of planning in advance. It's quite literally like hitting a needle head with a speck of dust.

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Postnificent OP t1_jdy2rj4 wrote

Did you miss the part where I did mention that chemical rockets are not suitable for this. I understand why we haven’t. What I don’t understand is why we aren’t working on it. We are working on making it to Alpha Centari and Mars asap but can’t clean up our neighborhood.

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WhosAlex992 t1_jdy3e71 wrote

I just explained why? It's ridiculously impractical and a waste of time and resources. We are working on solutions to the space debris problem. It is a serious concern for future space exploration. But sending that debris to another planet is not a proposed solution for obvious reasons.

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titanofmeme t1_jdyu3ud wrote

So let me get this straight: we produce an extraordinary amount of spacecraft with nuclear thermal propulsion, launch them into LEO using chemical rockets, capture orbital debris and then send both the engines and debris to venus, costing a conservative estimate of tens of millions per launch?

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