Japan's 'fishing net' for space junk crashes back to Earth as radical mission fails

[marinegirl]

Japan's 'fishing net' for space junk crashes back to Earth as radical mission fails

• Electrodynamic 'tether' would to slow the orbiting rubbish and bring it lower
• Hope was that the clutter would eventually enter the Earth's atmosphere
• Then it would burn up harmlessly before it had a chance to crash into the planet
• 700-metre long tether was due to be extended from cargo ship launched in Dec

By AFP

PUBLISHED: 07:57, 6 February 2017 | UPDATED: 19:59, 6 February 2017

An experimental Japanese mission to clear 'space junk' or rubbish from the Earth's orbit has ended in failure, officials said Monday, in an embarassment for Tokyo.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4194946/Japans-troubled-space-junk-mission-fails.html

Images available in the full article,

[mclaren85]

Was that mission necessary? Any junk will eventually fall on earth like a yellow leaf.

[marinegirl]

Must have thought so...i,m hoping someone could educate us on the subject.

[jtmulc]

7 hours ago, mclaren85 said:

Was that mission necessary? Any junk will eventually fall on earth like a yellow leaf.

 

There is an estimated 500,000 small pieces of junk (1-10cm), plus another 21,000 larger pieces (>10cm).  The stuff in low Earth orbit graze the atmosphere and will eventually fall to Earth.  The junk in higher orbits wizz around at thousands of miles per hour until they hit something, which creates more junk. 

 

This site shows everything NASA is tracking in real-time.  Bear in mind that NASA can't track anything smaller than a softball, so there's even more junk up there than is shown.

[flash48]

Sounds like someone wanted to open up a space junk yard to recycle space metal.  Perhaps it will be profitable and help clean up the solar system too.

[marinegirl]

22 hours ago, jtmulc said:

 

There is an estimated 500,000 small pieces of junk (1-10cm), plus another 21,000 larger pieces (>10cm).  The stuff in low Earth orbit graze the atmosphere and will eventually fall to Earth.  The junk in higher orbits wizz around at thousands of miles per hour until they hit something, which creates more junk. 

 

This site shows everything NASA is tracking in real-time.  Bear in mind that NASA can't track anything smaller than a softball, so there's even more junk up there than is shown.

Wow! self perpetuating cloud of destructive material. I can see that becoming a bit of a problem in the future...again nice one.