Re:butterfly net to collect space junk

lol, I knew someone would have thought of this :)

spud


http://www.smartertechnology.com/c/a/Global-Challenges/Butterfly-Net-to-Colle...


Butterfly Net' to Collect Space Junk

A team of scientists is rethinking the concept of the butterfly net on a much larger scale. They've devised a netlike machine to catch all of the dangerous trash that's swirling around our planet.

Space junk includes all of the now-defunct manmade materials that orbit our planet. It can include anything from trashed rocket stages and obsolete satellites to fragments left over from explosions.


While space junk might sound harmless, keep in mind it's whirling around at thousands of miles an hour. At that speed, even a tiny speck of dust can cause significant damage to spacecraft—an especially troublesome risk for solar panels and protective shielding, which guards a craft from space's extreme temperatures and radiation.

A recent NASA study addressed just how hazardous space junk can be. "The greatest risk to space missions comes from non-trackable debris," says Nicholas Johnson, NASA chief scientist for orbital debris. Such declarations have led to increased research on solutions for preventing collisions with space junk, and collecting the rubbish.

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