[laurent92]

That is exactly what I thought too. As things go cheap, they become encumbered with their local version of « turd ». We are now sending dozens of thousands of microsatellites, which, in 20 years, may well be considered as Earth’s manure floating around.

I wonder if the market or human incentives will increase some other variables which will make it just as inaccessible to the lowly (as it should - Even Elon Musk shouldn’t be able to send non-necessary stuff up in low orbit), such as: Increasing testing requirements to ensure it does ejects itself away from the LEO, or increasing legal authorizations required.

On the other hand, assuming we could indeed send our manure for $1400/kg, would it be the most reasonable way to get rid of radioactive waste? It sounds like a Simpsons episode, but the cost seems so low that it sounds like the next step.

[KingMachiavelli]

LEO isn't a great place for radioactive waste as it would be in the path of many satellites plus their is some orbital decay meaning it would eventually fall back to earth. Higher orbits take more energy to reach and thus are more expensive.

There is also politics involved, any country putting nuclear 'waste' in high orbits would be a suspect for putting nuclear weapons in space as well.

[smorephism]

>Increasing testing requirements to ensure it does ejects itself away from the LEO

You actually specifically want things to go to LEO before they die; when they're sufficiently low, atmospheric drag takes care of them quickly.

I agree with the overall direction of your point-that we need to be careful about our space junk-though :)

[thereisnospork]

> On the other hand, assuming we could indeed send our manure for $1400/kg, would it be the most reasonable way to get rid of radioactive waste? It sounds like a Simpsons episode, but the cost seems so low that it sounds like the next step.

It sounds awful at first glance, but I wonder what the environmental impacts actually are of nuclear waste de orbiting and spreading evenly over the atmosphere. Normalized out per kwh, environmental radiation release might be less than the equivalent coal power plant? I'll have to break out an excel sheet later.

[khazhoux]

I had the exact same thought! LOL

Now I wonder what exactly about the headline made all three of wonder about sending poop to space? I guess poop is a universal answer to "most ridiculous thing that weighs under a pound"?