Gassy outbursts from a suborbital Eruca vesicaria sativa may be the cleanest elbow room to get disembarrass of hazardous blank debris , suggest a newUS patent applicationfiled on 27 September by aerospace giant Boeing of Chicago .
Space junk – derelict rocket bodies , broken in or used - up satellites and debris generated by their interminable collisions – is becoming the scourge of the space age . Even tiny musical composition can zip through metal at hypersonic fastness , putting cosmonaut and spacecraft at risk of exposure .
After more than 50 age of space flight , so much litter has pile up that some expert predict near - Earth blank space will becomedifficult to navigateby mid - century unless agenciesstart removing the mess .
Most space junk can burn up safely during re - accounting entry into Earth ’s atmosphere , but that means something needs to poke at it out of arena . The fast one is , how do you deliver an orbital clean - up crew without bestow more trash ?
So far , approximation for sweeping up near - Earth quad includeattaching sailsto abandoned ship satellites to slow them down , post tentacledjanitor robotsto drag junk out of orbit or deploy enormous automaton - pull internet to trawl for debris .
One problem with nets , sails and janitor bot is that they require loft on orbital rockets that themselves could leave behind space bedding material .
Boeing ’s plan suggests place up a rocket carrying a tank of a cryogenic inert gas such as xenon or krypton . At the top of a trajectory designed to bug a cloud of infinite junk , the projectile would aerify its payload and “ fire ” up to 10 MT of flatulency through a special nozzle .
This cloud would dissipate in moment , but its initial density would make enough drag to slow the debris , Boeing artificer Michael Dunn say in the patent .
Dunn has calculated that for an object moving at about 7.8 kilometres per second base , the gas swarm could subdue orbital speed by 0.2 kilometres per second – enough to condemn it to fiery glow in the upper atmosphere .
This rocket may well be used below the 100 - kilometre Karman note , which by conventionalism delineate the edge of space . At that height , the rocket could shoot its debris - brake cloud much further – up to altitudes of 600 kilometres – and then but drop back to Earth .
range Credit : ESA
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