FEB 05, 2018

How the RemoveDebris Satellite Could Clean Up Space Junk

WRITTEN BY: Anthony Bouchard


The space surrounding the Earth is quickly becoming over-cluttered with space junk, and scientists are trying to find ways to clean it up before space travel becomes entirely inaccessible.

RemoveDebris is an upcoming satellite that will attempt to do just that. It can utilize tools like harpoons and nets to wrangle space junk and drag it back toward Earth so that it can burn up in the atmosphere during re-entry.

For what it's worth, scientists don't actually know if this tactic is going to work on a large scale, but its cost-efficiency might be worth the risk considering the astronomical costs that come with other space junk cleanup methods.