3 ms·
Japan to test magnetic net to clean up space junk circling Earth
- thinkpad20 13y agoNice! I had been wondering if this project was still alive. I hope they're successful; it sounds kinda like a long shot though.
- gizmo686 13y agoAny insight on why is sounds like a long shot? It seems like the goal is to reduce the amount of junk, not eliminate it, so they can afford a pretty high miss rate.
- userulluipeste 13y agoI'm confused. Does the space junk need to be cleaned? If it's on low orbit, it will suffer atmospheric drag and will eventually fall back on earth; if it's on higher orbits then it doesn't differ much from other "natural" junk that existed since before space age. Am I missing something here?
- gizmo686 13y agoI think the problem is that the space junk from us tends to be in a stable orbit, because we specifically positioned it to be in a stable orbit. And it would tend to inhabit the same elevation as we like our satellites. Also, I suspect that most natural junk would not still be in orbit, as it would likely have already fell back to Earth, or left orbit. This isn't to say that all of the junk is ours, but it makes sense that a significant amount is.