If today's Military needed to build a better SR-71 Blackbird do you think they can pull it off?

[SkyDog58]

Currently, the JSpOC tracks more than 16,000 objects orbiting Earth. About 5 percent of those being tracked are functioning payloads or satellites, 8 percent are rocket bodies, and about 87 percent are debris and/or inactive satellites.

Trashing space, just like Earth. Ain't it great?

 

[brcase]

"Give me 40 acres and I'll turn this thing around..."
They might not be able to catch you, but they're sure gonna know where you're going.

Nauga,
with the subtle maneuverability of a bullet

2200mph @ 45 degree bank = 123 mile Turn Diameter.
Not going to keep that in your 40 acres.

 

[wanttaja]

Why am I thinking about the movie Gravity. How much stuff can be put up there before we have to worry about them running into each other?

Stuff's up there now, collisions happen (one of the Shuttles was hit by orbital debris) but the problem is a LOT less than people think, except in popular orbits like Geostationary (where stuff comes at you slowly, and you can dodge).

But the data is AWAYS deceptively presented. Whenever they show a graphic, they represent each piece of debris as being ~100 miles wide. Pixel size limitations....

16,000 things up there and 87% of them are junk

Spacecraft aren't permanent...the vast majority of them die, eventually. So everything put into orbit above, say, 500 miles is going to be there permanently unless the owners install the capability to deorbit. Too late for all the dead stuff up there, not possible for stuff like separation bands and optics covers.

Ron "Engineering DNA in over three dozen space objects" Wanttaja

 

[wanttaja]

2200mph @ 45 degree bank = 123 mile Turn Diameter.
Not going to keep that in your 40 acres.

But it's the easiest way that I've found!

Ron "No slouch on old tunes, either" Wanttaja

 

[flyingron]

You don't know what, if anything has replaced the SR-71's mission. Neither do I.

He was talking about NASA's use (high altitude research).

I got a video my daughter shot last year. I said, nice shot of a U-2. She tells me it's an ER-2 and she was in the chase car on landing as it was her instrument on board that flight.

 

[mscard88]

He was talking about NASA's use (high altitude research).

.

BUT the thread is titled military, not NASA. I know, this is POA and thread drift. Whatya gonna do.