TOKYO — When China successfully towed a dead satellite into a “graveyard orbit” this year, it alarmed experts in Japan who have been trying to put their country at the forefront of the world’s expanding market in space-junk removal.Some interpreted the Chinese feat as a demonstration of an orbit-offensive capability — the ability to make unwelcome, close approaches to other satellites. The technology involved is a precursor to what Japan is racing to build.
With commercial space activities taking off, the amount of junk orbiting the planet poses an increasing threat of collisions. Companies around the globe are working to develop the means to send this junk tumbling toward Earth so it will burn up in the extreme temperatures of reentry. No rules govern who is responsible for cleanup — or space-debris mitigation, as it is called — but Japan intends to play a key role in their development. The nation has stepped up cooperation with the United States in“In space, Japan has always been a country of second gear. The first gear was always the United States, Soviet Union and, recently, China,” said Kazuto Suzuki, a space policy expert at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Public Policy.
Dealing with space debris requires cooperation and trust among countries, especially the top polluters — the United States, China and Russia. But that has been in short supply given the icy state of relations between Washington and both Beijing and Moscow.
orbitalrecycling ! spacejunkcollector !
exciting news
I love this!!
Desperately needed to avoid Kessler Syndrome. Every spacefaring nation needs to do this.
Great!
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