[lmm]

> couldn't you just send a bunch of fortified rockets that absorb the debris during a collision but don't emit anything.

"Just" how? Orbital collisions happen at an average of 10km/s, you're going to make what, some kind of sponge that can get hit by a chunk of satellite going ~8x faster than a bullet and absorb it and slow it to a halt without fragmenting at all? Good luck.

> Do that a few times and then all other rockets just reuse the path that was cut?

Things in orbit are constantly moving, you can't "clear a path" any more than you can, IDK, make a safe route through a forest by walking through it once and moving any bears you encounter a couple of feet.

[lupusreal]

A large mass of Whipple shields.

The "clearing a path" idea is inane, but we do know how to absorb hypervelocity debris impacts while generating a net negative amount of debris.

[ben_w]

Whipple shields fragment, don't they? They slow stuff down enough to not be a hazard to the thing being shielded, but if the goal is mess-reduction I don't see how that will help?

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Whipple-shield-concept_f...

[lupusreal]

The force of the impact effectively vaporizes part of the shield and the debris. Eventually the shield will be structurally unstable swiss cheese, but that can be modeled and the shield deorbited before it starts to fall apart.

[RHSman2]

I love this retort. Made my day.