Comets & Space Junk

Joseph James, JJ to most, was the wild card in the United Earth Nations cabinet. He was there because of his raw talent for getting things done. His reputation as a businessman and his popularity with the voters meant that Secretary-General Chen wanted him on his team but he was always the one with the contrary idea to the consensus. He was no diplomat and was no challenge to the Secretary-General's political position. He was always the man who spoke most in cabinet meetings, like this one, even if many of his innovative and radical ideas were shot down as being of too much political risk. But today was not the kind of day when politics mattered all that much.

"I do not believe in the Kobayashi maru scenario," JJ said to puzzled faces. Realizing they did not get the analogy he continued, "You know Star Trek, the unwinnable scenario, Captain Kirk beat it by reprogramming the computers... anyone?" Dead silence. JJ rolled his eyes.

Secretary Chen waved for him to continue, adding, "We are not all as well educated as you are in the cultural classics, " he said this with some sarcasm but then continued, "If you have a solution then I want to hear it right now."

"We are in this pickle right now because a whole bunch of billionaire businessmen failed to prevent the accumulation of debris in Earth's orbit. They destroyed our capacity to build and launch ships safely and now we are looking at a dynamic nightmare of colliding pieces of junk filling our skies. So to keep their companies from going under they outsourced all our shipbuilding to Mars where the costs were lower and the skies clearer. Also with all due respect, Mr. Secretary the sanctions you imposed to try and regenerate Earth's local shipbuilding capability with an Earth-First approach have only isolated us from any help we could have expected from the extraterrestrial colonies and was never economically realistic in the first place because of the debris that litters earth orbit. "

Chen's face flashed with anger and he replied with some impatience, "That is just your description of events and not very helpful so far. What has it to do with the approaching comet?"

JJ continued, "Just setting the scene, Secretary General. Bear in mind it was space construction activities that knocked the comet off course in the first place so we already know it can be diverted. So having established who is to blame and what the problem is what is the common feature of all of these billionaires I just mentioned?"

"That they are all rich!?" Chen tapped his fingers on the great oak table the cabinet was seated around.

"No, that they all own a space yacht! And what is more, they own a lot of them and some of them are quite fast and powerful. So I have a proposal. There is a mesh technology that is ultra strong and relatively thin that is produced here on Earth. It has been used on construction sites all across the solar system to clean up the dust and debris created by asteroid mining sites and to allow continued mining activity. Recently an earth inventor found a way to add nodes to the mesh which allows the combination of multiple meshes in a much larger mesh. So what I propose is that we commandeer all the most powerful yachts on Earth, and launch them into orbit with this mesh stored in their holds. Then we release the mesh into a square behind each yacht. We combine all the meshes using the node technology. Then all the yachts would form a circle around the created mega-net which could be a thousand miles wide and attach themselves to its edges to be able to drag it. We will then go round and round the planet and collect all the debris there is there cleaning the skies completely. We will then accelerate all this debris as fast as we can toward the comet hitting it at an angle that will deflect the comet to one side so that it misses the Earth. So we will both solve the Kessler problem that has plagued us for decades and avert a major extinction event."

Secretary General Chen rubbed his chin. "This might work, but would not this mesh also sweep up all the legitimate functioning satellites in Earth orbit? That is all our communications, the internet, weather satellites, military defense grids, everything."

"Yes, it would and the cost therefore runs into trillions but the Earth survives and we get a brand new chance to run a launch industry, and now that we know the effect of unregulated launches filling the sky with debris we could manage it better in the future."

"What happens to the billionaire's yachts?"

"Most likely they would survive, as it is the kinetic impact of the space debris that will divert the comet, not the spaceships themselves. The yachts can be disengaged once the trajectory is established. So the billionaires would get their yachts back with the thanks of the people of Earth and they would have clear skies to fly them in, from here on out, not to mention a whole range of rebuilding contracts."

"We would be looking at a major economic collapse in the short term because of the loss of all our trading and communication networks. Though, as you say, at least the comet would not hit the Earth. Does anybody else have a working plan?" The Secretary stared around at his cabinet who were all rubbing chins, and pondering what had been shared but who remained utterly silent.

It was Harald Fitzgerald the only trillionaire on the cabinet who provided the counter opinion. "Impact assessments on this comet suggest it is not an extinction-level collision we are talking about here. The loss of all that economic infrastructure would leave Earth vulnerable to takeover by better-equipped forces from elsewhere in the solar system. It would be better to ride out the collision and to avoid the economic and political risks that would come from the loss of our satellite network."

JJ stared in disbelief at the man for a moment before realizing his real motivations. "The fact that all your money is tied up in Earth Satellite infrastructure has of course nothing to do with all this?! I cannot believe you would be so selfish at a time like this. Our lives, the survival of the very planet are on the line here."

Harald Fitzgerald scowled by way of reply but having been so exposed did not retort JJ's observation.

Secretary General Chen shrugged, he had no other options and he had to do something. "We will go with JJ's plan."

####

Despite the promise of return many of the billionaires refused to surrender their yachts having envisaged them as how they would escape the planet as the comet approached. Harald Fitzgerald was one of those who disappeared shortly after the cabinet meeting, as did many of his closest friends in the elite business world. So many yachts had already departed before they could be commandeered. But enough were found to do the job.

A minor modification to the plan was to deploy a strong but light carbon composite shield before each ship in the ring around the mesh. These were angled to push any debris they collided with into the net. A whole world watched the skies anxiously as the ships launched. Some 3% were lost in the launch process but enough were in the sky to create the mesh. As the debris accumulated in the net it was visible from Earth circling the Earth multiple times until there was a curved black ring in the sky periodically casting a shadow on the spectators below. Then the mesh started to close as the ships moved ahead of it and out toward the comet. The debris in the mesh changed shape into a more spherical blob as the mesh closed around it. This blob was then accelerated by the ships toward the approaching comet, also now visible in the daytime sky. Once the maximum speed had been achieved, the ships before the blob released the mesh and flew off to either side. The blob continued before smashing into the comet. There was a spectacular explosion of light in the sky. A breathless world watched with their naked eyes since most TV and satellite channels were now down. For a moment it was not clear if anything had changed, there was too much dust. Then as the dust cleared they could see the comet was moving at a different angle and the Earth was saved.

Notes ▼

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PROMPT:
"In short, we're asking for your help, anything you can do. We have had our differences to be sure, but this threat is bigger than any of those."

It was a strange position for the Secretary General of the United Earth Nations to be in. Despite the damage done by the diaspora and despite the rich elemental resources of the Belt, the cradle of humanity still boasted the most powerful economy by far, and by virtue of its population still held the lead not only in agricultural production but basic scientific research. Yet all of Earth's low orbit telescopes and all of its AI watchers and aggregators had missed this threat, and it was a big one.

It took well over an hour for the Martian Economic Alliance's nominal head, one Yusef Amdani, to reply. In part, this was due to the time it took for Secretary-General Chen's statement to reach Mars, and it part it was due to Amdani's need to collect responses in turn from some of the larger manned settlements across the nearby moons and asteroids.. But Chen suspected that Amdani was embarassed at his own powerlessness at the situation, and needed time to compose a dignified answer.

"We apologize, Secretary General, but with only weeks until the comet strikes, there is very little we can do. At present, even the larger fusion-torch freighters would require well over a month of travel time to reach earth orbit. And we regret that the Secretary's recent economic embargo has created a situation where none of those freighters are currently in transit. We recognize the complexity of N-body gravitational projections and regret that space construction may itself have been the disturbance that deflected Comet ADR-1861 into earth conflict, but the best we can do is offer our own telemetry readings of the object. Deflecting or destroying the object can only be done by Earth."

Chen sighed. If not for Mars's decades-long stranglehold on shipping and space construction, Earth would have been ready. That strange hold was the reason for the cursed embargo that placed Mars's freighters out of reach. Given a few months' warning, or absent the near-Kessler-Syndrome conditions that had crippled its own launch and construction infrastructure, Earth could easily have built and launched an unmanned intercept vehicle in time. Unfortunately, the question now was: how many would die?