Japan Sends Its New Space Junk-Fighting Technology To The ISS (phys.org)

What floats 249 miles in the sky, stretches 2,300 feet, and took over 10 years to develop? An anonymous reader quotes Phys.org: Japan launched a cargo ship Friday bound for the International Space Station, carrying a "space junk" collector that was made with the help of a fishnet company... Researchers are using a so-called electrodynamic tether made from thin wires of stainless steel and aluminum... The electricity generated by the tether as it swings through the Earth's magnetic field is expected to have a slowing effect on the space junk, which should, scientists say, pull it into a lower and lower orbit. Eventually the detritus will enter the Earth's atmosphere, burning up harmlessly long before it has a chance to crash to the planet's surface.
Bloomberg has some interesting background: The experiment is part of an international cleanup effort planning to safeguard astronauts and about $900 billion worth of space stations, satellites and other infrastructure... Satellite collisions and testing of anti-satellite weapons have added thousands of debris fragments in the atmosphere since 2007, according to NASA... With debris traveling at up to 17,500 miles an hour, the impact of even a marble-size projectile can cause catastrophic damage.

Comments

Re:Junk-fighting technology to the ISIS?

[Rei]

Speaking of ISIS, while Russia was busy bombing the has-never-conducted-an-attack-against-the-west anti-Assad/anti-ISIS opposition in Aleppo, ISIS overran the UNESCO heritage site / moderate-sized city of Palmyra, all of the oil and gas fields around it, and are as we speak overrunning the Tiyas/T4 airbase nearly halfway between Palmyra and Homs. It was nearly 3 days before Russia started bombing ISIS positions at Palmyra, and by then it was too late; Russia's focus was, and continues to be, the still-highly-populated rubble of southeast Aleppo (over 40 strikes reported just today)

I mean, I fully understand the strategy on their part. Eliminate all "acceptable" opposition to Assad, leaving the conflict as only Assad vs. Daesh (ISIS) - thus forcing everyone to take his side. But it's still frustrating to see Daesh resurgent against the Assad/Russian fronts while everyone else (Turkey/FSA (Euphrates Shield) near al-Bab, YPG/US near Raqqa, Iraq/Peshmerga/US at Mosul, etc) is sacrificing greatly to try to defeat them. And despite how much of Palmyra Daesh had already destroyed, there's still plenty of ruins standing for them to use for target practice. Already plenty of reports of them already arresting civilians as well....

Re:Junk-fighting technology to the ISIS?

[Rei]

To elaborate on the "never-conducted-an-attack-against-the-west" aspect: The closest thing one can come up with is the kidnapping of 45 UN peacekeepers by the former Jabhat al-Nusra (now Jaish Fatah al-Sham, after the announcement of severance of ties with al-Qaeda); they were all eventually released, under mediation from Qatar. But that was in response to a previous firefight between al-Nusra and the UN forces, and was conducted in an active conflict zone. There've also been a number of other foreigners kidnapped (they would say arrested), but always in Syria, on various grounds. They do not go overseas to conduct attacks, have repeatedly stated that they have no war with the west and do not seek one (although some US bombings of them in recent months seem to be ticking them off, based on their statements). JFS makes up about 30% of the defenders in Aleppo, and like the other members of Jaish al-Fatah and the FSA groups that make up the rest of the defenders, is in fierce opposition to Daesh. Jaish al-Fatah is a salafist rebel coalition; non-salafists generally go by the general moniker FSA (Free Syrian Army). But there's so much variation between different brigades in each group. For example, the FSA groups in the northwest, like the 1st Coastal which operates in Latakia, are for example very different from the FSA groups that are working alongside the Turkish army in Euphrates Shield near al-Bab.

I think because of the former connection with al-Qaeda (which is now ostensibly severed; no evidence has been presented to the contrary, but it's right to be suspicious of them until proven otherwise), there's been a lot of foreign attention focused on JFS. But it's a lot more complicated than that (here's a nice profile of the group, written pre-split), and more to the point, I think it takes away a lot of attention from some of the complexity in the conflict in general. JFS's stark opposition to Daesh, domestic focus, and much greater nuance in handling of local populations (versus previous al-Qaeda-linked groups, such as in Iraq) led to the mainstreaming of them into the opposition. But some groups (apart from the obvious case of Daesh) are more concerning - for example, al-Zinki. During the previous (quite successful) JaF assault on Hama petered out when al-Zinki allowed/assisted a Daesh suicide bomber to move through Idlib and attack against Ahrar ash-Sham (a prominent JaF group). JaF in turn directed its guns on al-Zinki instead. JFS tried to act as the "Can't We All Just Get Along?" peacemaker in the conflict. Another incident with al-Zinki occurred when they captured a child soldier from a Palestinian paramilitary that was fighting for Assad, and beheaded him. That nearly got JaF attacking them as well, until al-Zinki arrested the soldiers and promised to punish them.

Ah, complexity...

Re:don't be an apologist

[Rei]

Israel is one of the numerous nations taking direct part. They bomb Syria about once every week or two - mainly going after Hezbollah targets (Hezbollah makes up a sizeable chunk of Assad's ground forces), but occasionally chemical weapons or ballistic missiles under Assad's command. They also do tit-for-tat responses in Golan. Russia seems to tolerate it; one presumes that they have some sort of deescalation method in place.

Sometimes it seems easier to list the major nations that aren't active participants in the conflict....