Anyone know why they didn’t just keep it around, surely having a few old batteries and a bit more shielding around the ISS might have come in handy? Was it risky to keep them around or did the extra weight (even in a basically weightless environment) come at a cost to maintaining orbit?
why not push it out of orbit, away from earth?
I wonder if they could add a trash launcher to the ISS. If some kind of spring or slingshot threw trash retrograde with sufficient velocity, there should be two advantages:
1) The trash would be put in an orbit with a lower periapsis, increasing atmospheric drag causing it to re-enter and burn up more quickly.
2) The orbit of the ISS would be boosted by dV of the trash, reducing the fuel required for the next boost.