RemoveDEBRIS Satellite Captures Space Junk

Is it going to be called the "Space Janitor Project"?

I wonder what space junk goes for, per lb...Will we see it for sale on Ebay someday? Will the Chinese sell copies? This one I know...yes, yes they will....

Most of the debris is due to two events: the collision of the Russian Kosmos 2251 and Iridium 33 satellites 10 February 2009 and the intentional destruction of the Chinese Fengyun-1C weather satellite by a Chinese missile on 11 January 2007. Unfortunately, both debris fields are in polar orbit and intersect the orbits of equatorial satellites at about 90 degrees.

https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/48gkvg/is_most_space_debris_traveling_the_same_direction/

Satellite collision:

Point of collision

Debris fields after 20 minutes

Debris fields after 50 minutes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_satellite_collision

Known orbit planes of Fengyun-1C debris one month after its disintegration by the Chinese ASAT (orbits exaggerated for visibility)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Chinese_anti-satellite_missile_test

Here is a condensed history of our collection of orbital debris:

https://gizmodo.com/a-history-of-garbage-in-space-1572783046

Good Answer. ''GA'' from me.

I don't suppose it was economically and physically feasible to launch another rocket in time to catch up to either one of the other two satellites in question, attach itself to one of them, and either, re-directing that combination away from Earth, or both into a decaying orbit that will cause the two conjoined satellites to both burn up in the atmoshere?...

The satellites were not conjoined, they approached at about 90 degrees at a differential velocity of about 25000 mph. Both continued on their previous courses, only each one in thousands of pieces with diverging trajectories.

Each of these pieces ends up in its own orbit. Each tiny piece still packs a huge amount of energy if it hits another satellite or spacecraft, and when this happens, you have many more pieces. Atmospheric drag eventually removes some debris, but at high altitudes it takes many years. If the number of fragments increases from collisions faster than atmospheric reentry can clear them out, then eventually space will become unnavigable.

We may be living in the unique period of history where we have access to space and the benefits that derive therefrom: satellite communications, navigation (GPS), weather satellites, etc.

I suspect that until this collision, it was thought highly unlikely that satellites could collide, given the huge amount of volume up there.

Moving the Iridium satellite, assuming it still had propellant left, would have been a much more feasible way to prevent the collision than launching another satellite to dock and then move the satellite, even if the collision could have been predicted far enough in advance to plan the mission.

Does anyone know what this test satellite will do with the collected debris/junk? Will the satellite return to the ISS or just simply decelerate, re-enter and burn up into microscopic sized debris in our atmosphere?

The ESA site can be accessed here.

https://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/Space_Debris/About_space_debris

Just an observation:

A. When a rocket or a satellite is launched into space, is there a plan in place ( part of the launch plan ) to pick up the trash produced ?

B. Why do scientists wait until an issue is serious, before anything is done to pickup the debris ?

I think I can answer my own questions:

Many times I go on a roof or underneath a house to repair or install a piece of equipment and I see trash everywhere ( nuts, screws, washers, bits of paper, metal, wire, plastic etc ) .

When I asked another technician about this refuse, the most common answers I received were:

1. It's not mine.

2. I don't have time to pick it up.

3. Nobody is going to see it anyway.

4. We are not getting paid to pick up trash.

5. Somebody else will clean it up.

It seems that clean up is always relegated to some kind of special event, sort of like a feel good project. Adults actively train children to propagate this mentality. The adult will take the child to an event then will flick a gum wrapper or cigarette butt onto the ground.

Actually, most of the material deployed into space are planned to return to Earth or disposed of in some fashion. The problem debris, as Rixter's chart points out, is typically from something going wrong. The anti-satellite test is the notable exception that has made a bigger mess. It did successfully remove the target satellite but at the price of creating a large fragmentation field that will probably take out others later on.

Yes, maybe that should be the question.

" To whom it may concern: We understand that you got the brains to put a vehicle in orbit, but do you got the smarts to clean up your mess afterwards? ".

I'm reminded of the old TV show Quark, about a space garbage collector.

Does anyone know if you could use the Earth's magnetic field to slow junk down? Maybe by putting an electric charge on the junk, or by attaching an electromagnet to it that is charged by solar energy? It would likely be very slow it it works at all, but would it work at all?