At small satellite conference, frustration about lagging efforts to deal with space junk

A British debris-removal satellite was deployed this summer from the International Space Station to help researchers figure out new techniques to clean up space junk that increasingly is becoming a hazard to the ISS and to other satellites. The experimental RemoveDebris mission in September successfully cast a net to catch a dead satellite in space. Next year it will try to capture the target with a harpoon. A harpoon that grabs orbital debris sounds like a cool idea, but putting up more hardware in space to clean up debris is probably not a sustainable proposition, said Fred Kennedy, the director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Tactical Technology Office. More

(Source: SpaceNews - Nov 6)