Space Junkyards - Seems like the time is right

Response to an article about the malfunctioning CoRoT satellite on UniverseToday.com:

It almost seems like a shame not to park all of these satellites in one or no more than several "junkyards", probably in several orbit distances, traveling all at the same speed in close proximity with the intent of, one day, allowing "space junkers" to retrieve them, perhaps cannibalize them in orbit and then de-orbit the remaining hulk, or perhaps if the hulk has value, somehow dismantling it and returning the materials to Earth for recycling either as whole components or raw materials. 

Taking it a step further, perhaps an entrepreneur could offer a satellite repair service at some point, drawing on the considerable collection of available parts to rebuild or repair a malfunctioning satellite. Such a service, say launched by one of the commercial ventures like SpaceX, might send a capsule to the nearest orbiting junkyard, retrieve parts, and then maneuver to a docking position with the malfunctioning satellite and fix it.  -Edit-: This actually sounds like a job that a space shuttle would do with its onboard Canadarm.--

There would surely be obstacles to overcome, and I'm aware that many of the components in satellites are unique to that particular machine. A different approach might be to line up several jobs to do in one orbital zone, pick the parts from the derelicts at the junkyard, repair the bad bird, and perhaps return some of the otherwise unusable but still valuable raw materials, or specific devices that are still good and could be used in new satellites to Earth.

I'm sure it would be an expensive undertaking, but so is designing, building, and launching satellites. This approach might also lead to some sort of standardization of components such that in the event of a malfunction, an identical and already in orbit part could be picked, the satellite joined with, repaired, and sent on its happy way. 

Some satellites might even need refueling or new batteries so that they could continue their useful lives beyond what was originally scheduled. It seems a shame to leave a perfectly good hulk in space when all it needs is a visit from the fuel truck. :)

Response to Bain Capital political ad

Response to article found at the link here.

If you feel alienated by this ad, then it's not President Obama who's doing it, it's your conscience. This ad can not be misconstrued to represent a simple layoff as bad. This was not a simple layoff. This was the intentional dismantlement of a company for quick profit. Bain Capital under Mitt Romney had a tried and proven system for the quick extraction of capital from the companies it chose to cannibalize. The system worked like this:  First, they would look for redundancies in labor, like any smart company would do, and then they would eliminate the redundant positions. All good, so far. But the next step was to sell securities - stocks and bonds - in order to gain quick capital. Then, they would pay themselves and their shareholders massive distributions leaving little for the necessary operation of the affected company.

At that point, the company would be unprofitable, deeply in debt because of the capital extracted by Romney, and facing bankruptcy. Since Bain would have made many times their initial investment back by that point, the company could fold, fly, flap, fart, or just fail. They didn't care, they had already sucked it dry. And that's when the real pain set in for the company's employees.

At that point, Bain would look to unload any non-revenue-producing stream from the company, or any that they could paint as such. Usually this was done in bankruptcy court and the debts would be discharged to the favor of Bain Capital. Employees were left with no employment, or with being underemployed. Bain had sucked the company's last producing teat dry, and now it just wants rid of the hulk.

That's not capitalism. That's cannibalism. And that's what Romney did at Bain Capital that earned him the wealth that he has beyond what he inherited from his wealthy father. He made his name as a scavenger, a corporate raider, a 'Barbarian At The Gate'.

Siding with Romney opposed to the thousands of workers who lost their livelihoods seems as calloused as he is. And that's the problem that I and others have with him. Not that he is wealthy, but that his wealth was milked from the lowest workers the companies that he raided employed. His wealth was made on human suffering and the total lack of compassion that his form of capitalist has.

A man who has no compassion in business will have no more than that in government. Add to that that he has allied himself with the ignoratti of the far right and you have a recipe for national bankruptcy, and I'll bet dollars to donuts that he would manage to profit from the downfall of our republic along the way.

Romney? I'd vote for no one before I'd vote for him.