02-18-2019, 11:24 PM
https://tch-forum.com/showthread.php?tid=2610&pid=55781
The British-led mission to test techniques to clear up space junk has demonstrated a harpoon in orbit.
The RemoveDebris satellite fired the projectile into a target board held at a distance on the end of a boom.
Video of the event shows the miniature spear fly straight and true, and with such force that it actually breaks the target structure.
But, importantly, the harpoon's barbs deploy and hold on to the board, preventing it from floating away.
Prof Guglielmo Aglietti, from the University of Surrey in Guildford, is the principal investigator on the mission. He declared the experiment a total success.
Using a harpoon sounds pretty low-tech, but I'm glad to see it's proven effective. These pieces of debris are becoming an ever-growing hazard to future space exploration - and every mission leaves more pieces hurtling around up there. This is compounded when the pieces of junk start colliding with each other and breaking into smaller pieces - because, at the speeds at which they orbit, even the tiny bits are lethal if they collide with a ship.
The thing is, a harpoon sounds like it couldn't pick up too many pieces at once. It might be good for removing the larger items, but I'm guessing something else will be needed for the numerous small bits.
The British-led mission to test techniques to clear up space junk has demonstrated a harpoon in orbit.
The RemoveDebris satellite fired the projectile into a target board held at a distance on the end of a boom.
Video of the event shows the miniature spear fly straight and true, and with such force that it actually breaks the target structure.
But, importantly, the harpoon's barbs deploy and hold on to the board, preventing it from floating away.
Prof Guglielmo Aglietti, from the University of Surrey in Guildford, is the principal investigator on the mission. He declared the experiment a total success.
Using a harpoon sounds pretty low-tech, but I'm glad to see it's proven effective. These pieces of debris are becoming an ever-growing hazard to future space exploration - and every mission leaves more pieces hurtling around up there. This is compounded when the pieces of junk start colliding with each other and breaking into smaller pieces - because, at the speeds at which they orbit, even the tiny bits are lethal if they collide with a ship.
The thing is, a harpoon sounds like it couldn't pick up too many pieces at once. It might be good for removing the larger items, but I'm guessing something else will be needed for the numerous small bits.
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