r/Damnthatsinteresting Mar 06 '25

GIF RemoveDEBRIS satellite harpoons space junk in a plan to clean Earth's orbit

10.0k Upvotes

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37

u/fothergillfuckup Mar 06 '25

There's apparently 90000 metric tons of junk in orbit. I love the sentiment, but this method may take a while...

19

u/Swipsi Mar 06 '25

Its a first step. Make it work first then scale it up.

6

u/fothergillfuckup Mar 06 '25

It's hard to imagine a lower tech method than, effectively, a bow and arrow though? One item at a time? I'd go state of the art, and try, maybe, a net?

6

u/VeryNiceGuy22 Mar 06 '25

This satellite also included three additional experiments:

The primary satellite had a target which was captured with a net

https://www.sstl.co.uk/space-portfolio/launched-missions/2010-2019/removedebris-launched-2018