Nanosatellite Takes Out The Trash

michael.creasy writes "The BBC has a article about a new nanosatellite due to be launched later this year. The idea is that the satellite be used to latch on to and slow down junk in space so that they will fall out of orbit and burn up on re-entry. " The only problem, as the article points out, is that there's no one really interested in purchasing this right now. Still, it's a pretty cool, especially if the price points are correct.

Comments

This would definitely be worth it

[fluxrad]

I remember a gentleman from NORAD come to my school about 4 or 5 years back to discuss what exactly they did up there. One of the facts that they gave us was that they were (then) tracking over 65,000 objects in and around earth's upper atmosphere. Most of it man made trash.

When you realize that if one of these hits a satelite or (worse) space, shuttle...at the velocity it's going...it would basically tear a hole right through it.

I think in the best of all possible worlds, the U.N or some other international organization would get together to find the funds for something like this. It's getting pretty cluttered up there, and i don't want to have to see a whole bunch of garbage when i take my scenic trip to the moon in 2014. :P


FluX
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