Ehhh, orbit's not a great idea, especially lower-earth orbit. There's already en... | Hacker News

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ignostic on April 13, 2015 | parent | context | favorite | on: Why the sun is a poor dumping ground for nuclear w...

Ehhh, orbit's not a great idea, especially lower-earth orbit. There's already enough space junk in our orbit right now that we're running the risk of an orbital chain-reaction. The chain reaction could take out most of our satellites. I'm sure radioactive waste in our upper atmosphere wouldn't be a good thing, either.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome

jrlocke on April 13, 2015 [–]

You are vastly underestimating the space of possible orbits and vastly overestimating the size of debris and satellites.

tlb on April 13, 2015 | [–]

Or possibly you are overestimating the probability of impact beyond which this should be considered too risky.

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