Yes, it's a combination of the fact we are living with increased dependence upon space based systems for weather, navigation, communication, defense, etc. And t

Yes, it's a combination of the fact we are living with increased dependence upon space based systems for weather, navigation, communication, defense, etc. And the enormous cost in production and deployment. Tracking space junk and issuing course corrections to orbiting satellites won't scale. As demand for low earth orbit real estate surely will increase with the coming New Space era of zero-g factories, space tourism and myriad other ventures. Clearing space debris is vital to continued exploration and represents an enormous opportunity, not to mention an engaging engineering challenge ;) The linked bi-directional plasma solution seems really elegant to me. And is feasible even for objects several meters in size. With fewer possible mishaps than say laser ablation. More detail here: The quest To Conquer Earth's Space Junk Problem https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06170-1 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06170-1