HOW TO CLEAR SPACE SCRAP

HOW TO CLEAR THE SPACE CRAP

Half a million pieces of scrapped objects, revolving around the earth at an insane velocity. How to catch them? Isn't it simple? If it is ferrous, take a magnet. If it's plastic, burn it with lasers. Some of them are even frozen water. That water can pierce a hole in your body. It's that fast! 

You can burn particles with lasers, catch important elements in nets and get back to Earth, reshape them and fly them again. Sounds so simple. I wish it was so. There can even be controversies over China sending a probe to clean up the mess but ends up destroying a NASA satellite. It can shape into a space war. 

What if laser beams destroy some other satellites antenna or some other important structure. What if the net couldn't catch the junk in time as the junks are travelling at a speed of a couple of kilometres per second. 

It's a complicated rather controversial topic to discuss on. Many scientists have suggested different plans but would only get their way into space if there were no governments. 

Looking at our past mistakes, we admit that henceforth we will try and reduce the number of parts in rockets which in turn will not add additional debris into space. BUT!! 

What about the debris that actually exists in space. How to turn down the scrap that's revolving around our planet. Actually, there are not many ideas when it comes to bringing back the existing debris. Today's rocket scientists just focus on future missions and no one cares about the existing issues. 

So, there are two major ways of reducing the space scrap: 

• Retrieve the scrap for reusability
• De-orbit them
• Eliminate the risk 

Retrieve the scrap: 

It's tough but possible. Nets and magnets are the best solutions. Though, matching their speed is beyond the borders. These tiny particles have very little mass and therefore to maintain the momentum, they rotate at a much higher velocity. (p = m.v) While a satellite in an LEO (Low Earth Orbit: 100-1000km) has a velocity of 5-7km/s, these debris travel at a speed of 10-12km/s. Debris like these has caused serious trouble to the crew on board the ISS (International Space Station). Even if we try and catch them using a net, they will tear the net apart. 

De-orbit them: 

De-orbiting simply means that somehow reducing the velocity of these particles so that gravity attracts them and they burn up in the atmosphere. The second thing we could do is, with the help of electricity or opposite magnetic field or even lasers, we could push the particles so that they leave the orbit and drop into Earth's atmosphere like comets and meteors. 

Eliminate the risk: 

What we could do is release a massive slingshot from Earth. Something like an anti-debris missile that will perfectly aim at the debris and divide it into thousands of minuscule particles. These particles, once reduced to insignificant size, can cause no harm because their mass reduces to negligible. 

That's all I had today. Amendment on any of these will clear out a massive chunk of scrap from space. Hoping for the best, Hey it's Hardik, signing off.