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NASA's Space Junk Removal Draft Ideas

NASA’s Draft Ideas for Removing Space Junk

    Since the launch of the Sputnik I satellite, space junk has been growing in vast numbers and are threatening to damage future spacecrafts. The U.S. Space Surveillance Network has tracked over 13,000 man-made space objects larger than 10 cm (4 in.) in diameter. Several scientists have begun to devise solutions to remove the junk, but many of these solutions are far too expensive to even consider.

    What many scientists are worried about is the diffusion of the space junk. According to NASA scientist Donald Kessler, the collision of two pieces of space junk would cause more debris to form, therefore increasing the chances of further impacts. 
Kessler said that when the rate at which debris forms is faster than the rate of at which it  de-orbits the Earth would be surrounded by belts of space junk. This scenario is called the Kessler syndrome. In fact, 40 percent of the 13,000 man-made space objects floating in low-Earth orbit are a result of breakups of both spacecraft and rocket bodies.

    To prevent the Kessler syndrome from becoming a reality, two groups of scientist have come up with two reasonably cheap solutions. The first idea was forged by Dr. Marco Castronuovo, an Italian Space Agency researcher. He introduced an idea that could successfully remove the objects from their orbit. Small satellites would be launched on seven year missions. Each satellite would be equipped with two robotic arms, one would be used to intercept and attach to spent rocket bodies or obsolete satellites, and the other would be used to affix a ion-engine thruster to maneuver the object back down to the atmosphere. These satellites could take down as many as 5-10 objects per year. As effective and cheap this idea may be, many nations disapprove of it. They think that while the purpose of the satellites is to take down inoperative objects, the satellites also have the power to take down operative ones.

    A similar scenario was facing the second group of scientists working to remove space junk. James Mason, a NASA contract scientist, and his companions were proposing a ground based laser that zaps individual pieces of debris, effectively slowing them down and causing them to fall out of their orbit. However, this laser was also seen as a potential threat to other nations for the same reasons as Dr. Castronuovo’s idea so Mason and his team decided to tweak their idea. They edited the laser so that it was much less powerful and used only the momentum of the photons to slow the debris down. A 5 KW laser could take down up to 10 objects a day if it were trained onto the same piece of junk for an hour or two. This is one of the more likely candidates for space junk removal.

    It is very important that we begin to remove the space junk as soon as possible because according Nicholas Johnson, a chief scientist and program manager for orbital debris at NASA and his computer model prediction system, the amount of space junk will remain steady until 2055 after which it will increase. The only thing standing in the way of this massive space clean-up are opposing nations. Several nations are not willing to give access to any of their spacecrafts, even though they are no longer operative. If this debris is not cleaned up it will not only create more space junk, but it will also present a threat towards operating systems such as satellites, manned space missions, and the International Space Station.