The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) last week issued a request for ideas to clean up orbital debris. The space junk problem has intensified since 2007 when China intentionally blew up a defunct satellite as part of a weapons test and since earlier this year when two communications spacecraft collided.
"Since January 2007 we have experienced a nearly 50 percent increase in the number of cataloged debris objects," DARPA wrote in its solicitation.
The request has attracted interest from aerospace contractor Boeing, NASA's Space Science and Technology Center at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, and several small firms, even though DARPA has not promised anything more than considering the options presented.
Source: Discovery Channel
"Since January 2007 we have experienced a nearly 50 percent increase in the number of cataloged debris objects," DARPA wrote in its solicitation.
The request has attracted interest from aerospace contractor Boeing, NASA's Space Science and Technology Center at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, and several small firms, even though DARPA has not promised anything more than considering the options presented.
Source: Discovery Channel
