Earth’s orbit is currently cluttered with more than half a million bits of debris, mostly rocket and satellite remnants that can destroy anything in the flight path.
The 106-year-old Japanese fishing net maker Nitto Seimo Co is working with the Japanese space agency to develop mesh material for capturing space debris.
The material will tether and drag bus sized pieces of space junk into the atmosphere for incineration.
Scientists will get the first indication of whether the metallic line will work once it is tested in orbit next month.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is leading the cleanup effort.
The experiment is part of the international cleanup effort to protect astronauts and somewhere around USD 900 billion worth of space stations, satellites and other infrastructure relied for telecommunications, weather forecasting, earth navigation and monitoring.
About Space Debris- Space debris travels at 17,500 mph i.e. approximately 28,163 km/h.
- The impact of even a small sized projectile can cause catastrophic damage.
Space faring nations have pursued different strategies for debris namely:
- Harpooning
- Sweeping
- Lassoing
- Dragging
- The space debris are then dragged into a “graveyard orbit” where they won’t collide with operational equipment.
- NASA’s Hubble Telescope has a 1 cm hole in one of its dish antennas.
- Solar panels have been cracked by small debris.
