Dealing with ISS trash

Well I'm far from an expert but I did some back of the envelope calculations. If you accelerate a 1 kg (about 2.2 lb) body to 1,000 m/s^2 you get 1,000 N of force. F = ma. If the station can take 1,000 N during orbit adjustments ISS 'should' be able to hand mass driver at these speeds and masses. (Assuming I didn't screw something up.) Also if the mass driver has many points along the rail that act to accelerate the mass, we might have 10 or 100 points that act, spreading the forces even more.

The real problems may be designing it, installing it, and processing current waste into shootable balls on station. Plus there's still the redesign of the progress/spacex capsule, or design of the new multiport capsule. Oh yeah, and convincing NASA.
Brooks

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, Ian Woollard wrote: