In praise of … a new broom in space

If we are no longer allowed to drop litter on the street, why does the same rule not apply to space? The idea to clean up the litter that orbits the Earth has nothing to do with concern for the low-orbit environment. Nor would it stop the stuff showering down on us. The risk of 22,000 odd pieces of junk – that is, objects large enough to track from the ground – hurtling around at 17,500mph is to fellow space users in low orbit. It only takes a bit of thoughtless behaviour (a star wars test by China to destroy one of its satellites with a missile increased the existing orbital debris by 15% ). There are lots of Jules Verne-era solutions – like giant nets or harpoons which would drag objects back into the atmosphere. Other solutions involve creating more junk to clean it up: firing satellites into orbit with robotic arms which will catch the junk, attach a rocket to it, and fire it out of orbit. Either way, a new broom in space is needed.