‘Angel Wings’ for Satellites Could Help Mitigate Space Junk – By Monisha Ravisetti (CNET) / Feb 02, 2023
ESA’s innovative device can ride to orbit on satellites and help them deorbit when the time comes.
As futuristic as this sounds, real estate in space is booming. Major corporations and science research organizations are actively vying to send satellites into orbit for extraordinary reasons — developing free internet connection; enhancing GPS systems; monitoring climate change; even analyzing Albert Einstein’s trippy general relativity equations.
But while humanity continues to advance technologically, experts are growing increasingly worried about a major issue: We’ve found a new area of the universe to pollute. As of 2021, NASA said, more than 27,000 pieces of orbital debris, or “space junk,” resided in our planet’s gravitational tides — and since then, SpaceX alone has sent hundreds more satellites up there.
Typically, when they’re done with their equipment, scientists kind of just wait until stuff in Earth’s orbit starts deorbiting and eventually burns up in our atmosphere. This natural process, however, can take a very (very) long time.
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