Originally published on October 24th, 2013
Space debris has become a critical issue for space operations, now they can be removed by a touchless process.
The Geosynchronous Large Debris Reorbiter (GLiDer) would fire an electron beam at a space debris and give it a modest negative charge. Then it GLiDeR would become relatively positive. Since positive and negative attract, the debris would follow the GLiDer, which would fly to remain about 15 to 25 meters in front of the junk. The debris would be tug into a higher orbital after two to three months. After GLiDer turn off the electron beam, the debris would return to a neutral state, it would be released from the tug and fling off into space. The GLiDer could remove roughly three objects a year this way.
According to aerospace engineer Hanspeter Schaub of the University of Colorado Boulder, who has been researching this method for several years, "The trouble is that many of these object are tumbling. Approaching something tumbling is very risky: You can get whacked and generate more debris," This method would keep the tugging spacecraft safe but would only work on some space junk, especially that which sits at geostationary orbit about 36,000 kilometers above the earth surface. There are more than 1,200 large objects in geostationary orbit. He also added, it's not a method that would work at low-Earth orbit. That's because the sun produces a charged plasma in the solar system. At low-Earth orbit, anything that gains a charge, like a piece of space junk shot with an electron beam, will quickly attract these colder charged plasma particles and become neutral again very quickly.
Schaub suggests using other methods to remove space debris at a near distance of Earth.
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