Space junk is becoming more and more of a problem as nations haphazardly chucks stuff up into orbit, and a variety of schemes have been proposed to deal with it, including lasers, explosions and janitor satellites. The latest idea comes from the Naval Research Lab, and it involves giant clouds of dust.
NASA estimates that “there are more than 21,000 orbital debris objects larger than 10 centimeters (roughly four inches) in diameter in low Earth orbit (LEO), and approximately 500,000 object particles between one and 10 centimeters, with the number of debris particles smaller than one centimeter in excess of 100 million.” It’s those little tiny particles that are the real problem, since they’re quite dangerous despite their size, but difficult to spot and keep track of. To deal with junk on this scale, the Naval Research Laboratory is proposing to launch rockets into space that’ll release 10 to 20 tons of micron-scale particles of tungsten dust, forming giant space-clouds that can “sweep” huge orbital areas for debris.
via DVICE
