I was reading over on Gizmodo today about space junk which are bits of debris floating around in space at crazy speeds. A video presentation made by WSJ indicates that a piece of junk about the size of a pea can be devastating if it hits a shuttle. Luckily, this hasn’t happened yet but there have been 12 near collisions since 1988.
If you think back a month or so when Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251 collided it really showed the world that there are potential dangers out there. As there have been no deaths of people in space just yet it seems like nobody wants to plough any money in to the problem, unless it’s cheap of course. A few suggestions have been made though which include blasting the debris with lasers and using water canons as well as not littering space with bolts etc… when ships separate.
Space flight is a risky business, but the chance of a deadly collision is increasing due to a spreading canopy of junk that’s orbiting our planet. And the wreckage from a recent satellite collision is adding to the trash, making more collisions among spacecraft all but inevitable.
Space Junk Removal Ideas
The first idea came from Jonathan Campbell who suggests using lasers (low-powered lasers) to singe the surface of an object which in turn, will help point it downwards towards the atmosphere to burn up.
Next, Jim Hollopeter suggests mounting water cannons on to rockets to spray the orbiting junk which will gradually push it all towards the atmosphere to burn up (seems like a lot of water will be needed).
Heiner Klinkrad suggested that we just stop littering space which seems like a good solution. He is also coming up with other ideas too to get rid of what’s there.
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