December 12, 2016 02:00 am
Original Link: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/QRTVdYv_OGI/japan-sends-its-new-space-junk-fighting-technology-to-the-iss
Japan Sends Its New Space Junk-Fighting Technology To The ISS
What floats 249 miles in the sky, stretches 2,300 feet, and took over 10 years to develop?An anonymous reader quotes Phys.org:Japan launched a cargo ship Friday bound for the International Space Station, carrying a"space junk" collector that was made with the help of a fishnet company... Researchers are using a so-called electrodynamic tether made from thin wires of stainless steel and aluminum... The electricity generated by the tether as it swings through the Earth's magnetic field is expected to have a slowing effect on the space junk, which should, scientists say, pull it into a lower and lower orbit. Eventually the detritus will enter the Earth's atmosphere, burning up harmlessly long before it has a chance to crash to the planet's surface. Bloomberg has some interesting background: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... Satellite collisions and testing of anti-satellite weapons have added thousands of debris fragments in the atmosphere since 2007, according to NASA... With debris traveling at up to 17,500 miles an hour, the impact of even a marble-size projectile can cause catastrophic damage.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Original Link: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/QRTVdYv_OGI/japan-sends-its-new-space-junk-fighting-technology-to-the-iss
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