Why don't "They"........?

Question

put a huge pipe out in to Space and suck all the c**p up we don't want.

If space is a vacuum, why don't they just get the Space Shuttle to lift a long wide pipe up to outside the earths atmosphere and just put anything we don't want straight out to space. It would be completely carbon neutral, if you give a hoot about that type of thing as space would do all the sucking for free.

I've got an old sofa for starters we could test it with. Also, people on the space station could shout messages back home if their radios all broke.

Answer 1

okay, so what you're saying is we've already screwed up our planet, lets just start shipping our junk out into space and s***w that up too?

Answer 2

the pressure difference between our atmosphere and space is too enormous to do that.

Answer 3

I thought the same thing.  don't know why?  If it was made of carbon nano tubes, and had a counter balance it would work.

Answer 4

haha, because the pipe would collapse under its own weight...

Ever heard of the orbital elevator?

The cable would weigh 100s of tons and would snap under its own weight.

Not a bad Idea, the cost of setup would horrendous but maintaining it might not be...

Answer 5

I'm liking this idea . i was wondering how it all stays in with the holes in the ozone layer in the first place. I would love to see an old sofa go up there , that would be a riot!

Answer 6

Because no one likes to pay for something expensive.

Answer 7

The environmentalists would declare the void of space a protected habitat, effectively making the Garbage Shoot to Heaven the greatest folly of mankind since the Tower of Babylon.

Answer 8

bit of basic math and physics explains why it won't work, bit of basic economic explains why they don't.

No matter what, to remove anything from planet earth requires that it be lifted out of the gravity well. ie it takes a lot of energy to move it away from the planet. The atmosphere stays where it is because of that same gravity.

A space elevator would make it easier if you could build it, but it still takes a lot of energy to move stuff up.

Two the problem with CO2 is that it is produced in dilute form while burning fossil fuels. It is energy intensive to concentrate it. So to separate the CO2 from the rest of the atmosphere requires yet more energy.

The cost of collecting the CO2 and then shipping it into space is WAY more than the alternative options of using a whole variety of renewable energy sources.

There is no shortage of energy available on the planet. The reason we use fossil fuels is because we thought it was easier and cheaper than some of the alternatives. Now we are beginning to understand that we miscalculated! We did not factor in the cost of the damage we are causing by increasing the CO2 in the atmosphere.

The problem we face is not an energy shortage, but an economic problem. The cost of energy is more expensive than we thought. Or another way of looking at it,  we have been, for the last 100-150 years been under paying for the energy we used. Now it is pay up time! Fortunately the cost of alternative energy is only moderately more than what we have been paying so it will not kill us to change. The fuss is all about just how much, or how little and how soon we are prepared to pay.

Answer 9

har,har,har,har,...bwa,ha,ha,ha,ha.....