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Autzoo.1622 net.space utzoo!henry Mon May 3 19:50:45 1982 projectile pollution Gerry O'Neill (sp?) and his folks have already considered this one. You never eject solid slugs of mass. In the early stages, you eject powdered mass, perhaps powdered External Tanks. You put a static charge on the stuff as it leaves the mass-driver, so it disperses itself as soon as it's free. A few micrometeorites, insignificant compared to the volume of natural sky junk that's already out there. Later on, when you are drawing reaction mass from lunar or asteroidal materials, you eject liquid oxygen extracted from rock. The LOX evaporates into space and the problem goes away completely.

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