REAL LIFE NEWS: JAPAN LAUNCHES SHIP TO CLEAR SPACE JUNK
by Hazed
Humans have been going into space for more than 50 years, and in that time we’ve been terrible litterbugs. There are now more than 100 million pieces of space junk in orbit, including discarded bits of old satellites, tools and chunks of dead rockets.
As they whizz around the Earth, many of them moving at high speeds of up to 17,500mph, there’s the potential for catastrophic accidents.
Now Japan is testing a possible solution to the problem of space junk. It has launched a cargo ship which will use a half-mile-long tether to sweep up some of the debris.
The tether is made from aluminium strands and steel wire, and was developed with the help of a fishing net company. It is designed to slow down the debris and pull it out of orbit, so it will descend into the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up.
Experts say that this method will only work for larger pieces of space junk, but anything that will reduce the risk for the multi-million dollar space industry is to be welcomed.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-38265676
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/12/09/japan_space_junk_collector/
