How to Clean Up Deadly Space Junk Before Disaster Strikes
Hit film Gravity offers a hyper-realistic portrait of life in space, including the possibility that …
Read more Read
This latest achievement, in which a harpoon was used to snatch a piece of debris while in orbit, is an important one given all the trash that’s accumulating in low Earth orbit.
The U.S. Space Surveillance Network estimates that around 29,000 objects larger than 10 centimeters are currently floating in Earth orbit, some at speeds approaching 10 kilometers per second, or 6 miles per second.
Solutions like the ones presented by the RemoveDEBRIS project could help us clean the space directly above us before a disaster happens. Pieces from discarded rockets, lost tools, broken chunks of spacecraft, and other objects have the potential to smash into valuable equipment. Through such collisions, space junk will create even more space junk.
“Space debris can have serious consequences for our communications systems if it smashes into satellites,” said Chris Skidmore, the UK Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation, in the statement. “This inspiring project shows that UK experts are coming up with answers for this potential problem using a harpoon, a tool people have used throughout history.”
So kudos to the RemoveDEBRIS team, who are now three for three with their tests. Fingers are crossed for the March experiment.
[University of Surrey, BBC]
Share This Story