Japan space scientists plan to pull junk out of orbit
Source: Agence France-Presse
Japan space scientists plan to pull junk out of orbit
Source: AFP | January 17, 2014, Friday | Print Edition
Japanese space scientists are to trial a tether they hope will help pull junk out of orbit around Earth, clearing up planetary clutter, they said yesterday.
Researchers at The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have developed what they called an electrodynamic tether made from thin wires of stainless steel and aluminium.
One end of the strip will be attached to one of the thousands of dead satellites or bits of rocket jamming up space and endangering working equipment.
Electricity generated by the tether as it swings through the Earth’s magnetic field is expected to have a slowing effect on the space junk, which should, scientists say, pull it into a lower and lower orbit until it enters the Earth’s atmosphere, burning up harmlessly.
Read more: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/world/Japan-space-scientists-plan-to-pull-junk-out-of-orbit/shdaily.shtml
= new reply since forum marked as read
But that doesn't make up for the whale hunt. JK 
from JAXA's own web site
http://www.jaxa.jp/article/interview/vol67/p2_j.html
Three and a half years after China intentionally blew up a satellite as part of a weapons test, 97 percent of the debris remains in orbit, posing “distinct hazards to hundreds of operational satellites,” writes NASA in its October issue of Orbital Debris Quarterly News.
The number of pieces of debris from the Fengyun-1C spacecraft surpassed the 3,000 mark last month. The tally as of mid-September was 3,037 objects — roughly 22 percent of all the cataloged objects in low-Earth orbit, reports the Orbital Debris Program Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
