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Article: Clean sweep: to protect satellites a European team is researching a craft that will move orbital debris. (News).
- Article from:
- The Engineer
- Article date:
- October 11, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Centaur Communications Limited. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A SPACECRAFT designed to act as a giant road-sweeper, clearing space of potentially damaging debris such as old satellites, could soon be orbiting the earth.
As part of a project for the European space Agency, Qinetiq is investigating the possibility of building a vehicle to protect satellites from the increasing danger posed by space junk, by moving the objects out of harm's way.
While the risk of satellites being damaged in this way is still quite small, the amount of space junk in orbit is increasing, said Walter Flury, who is co-ordinating Esa's space debris programme. 'Only six to seven per cent of catalogued large objects are actually operating ...