Astro-scientists have for more than 10 years been concerned with what to do about the growing plethora of debris encircling earth.
Between Low Earth Orbit, 2000 km altitude and 35,786 km altitude or Geostationary Orbit are approximately 16,000 objects larger than 10 cm in diameter and hundreds of millions of smaller particles circumnavigating our planet at speeds of several kilometers per second.
On February 10, 2009, the U.S. satellite Iridium-33 exploded upon impact with the abandoned Russian satellite Cosmos-2251. This collision impacted with significant financial consequences, particularly for the insurance companies, but also adding much more junk for astro-technicians to monitor.
The Swiss Space Center EPFL is currently developing a satellite probe aptly badged CleanSpace One, a project to build the first prototype in a family of “de-orbiting” satellites. that will chase, grab and destroy space debris. EPFL hopes to launch their first one before their Swisscube-1 or TIsat-1. satellites expire.
Here now is a short video documentary of their CleanSpace One preparations and their speculations.
