Space isn’t so empty these days. Earth’s
orbit is cluttered with more than half a million bits of debris, mostly rocket
and satellite remnants that can wreck anything in their flight path. A 106-year
old Japanese fishing net maker may have a solution. Nitto Seimo Co. is working
with Japan’s space agency to develop a mesh material to tether and drag bussize
pieces of space junk into the atmosphere for incineration. Scientists will get their
first indication of whether the metallic line will work when it’s tested in
orbit next month, said project chief Koichi Inoue, an associate principal
researcher at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. 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 relied on
for telecommunications, weather forecasting, Earth-monitoring and navigation. With
debris traveling at up to 17,500 miles an hour (approx. 28,163kmph), the impact
of even a marble-sixe projectile can cause catastrophic damage as portrayed in
the Academy Award winning movie ‘Gravity’. “We need to take action of this
massive amount of debris,” Inoue said at the JAXA campus in Tsukuba, north of Tokyo.
“People haven’t been injured by the debris yet, but satellites have. We have to
act.” Space faring nations around the world are pursuing different strategies
for harpooning, sweeping, lassoing and dragging debris and redundant gear of
varying sexes into the atmosphere for burning or into a so-called graveyard
orbit, where they can’t collide with operational equipment. NASA’s Hubble
Telescope has a 1cm hole in one of its dish antennas, and solar panels have
been cracked and chipped by tiny debris, according to its website. “There’s a
significant value to the industry of mitigating that risk,” said Ben Greene,
chief executive officer of Sydney-based Electro Optic Systems Holdings Ltd,
which is developing land-based laser technology to track and alter the course
of space debris smaller than a flat screen TV. Nitto Seimo was asked by the space
agency about a decade ago to develop a metal mesh line, said Katsuya Suzuki, a
subsection chief who previously oversaw the project. JAXA wanted mesh, instead
of single cable, because it would be harder to break. “it was extremely
difficult,” said Suzuki. “At first, we could only make 20 or 30 cm. It took us
until about 2010 until we could finally make several hundred metres.” The aluminum-containing
line is designed to harness Earth’s electromagnetic forces to propel tethered
objects out of orbit and into the atmosphere for destruction. Nitto Seimo may
build a line as long as 10km if next month’s experiment using a 700-meter piece
is successful, Suzuki said.
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