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crosiss76 t1_jbudjnm wrote

So whats the solution to clean it up. Giant magnets

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Annicity t1_jbw5w81 wrote

The easiest way to dispose of orbiting bodies is to crash them into Earth. Most sats are quite small and unless you're dropping the ISS, they burn up in the atmosphere.

Future sats may use drag sails to slowly pull it down. https://www.space.com/esa-drag-sail-prototype-adeo-unfurls

And regulation is already happening, the FCC has introduced the 5-year plan. https://www.nasa.gov/smallsat-institute/sst-soa/deorbit-systems https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-adopts-new-5-year-rule-deorbiting-satellites

Removing existing debris will ultimately mean slowing them down, to drag them to earth. A likely candidate is using lasers. https://phys.org/news/2021-04-laser-sky-space-debris.html But other concepts are being developed. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/12/09/505020386/japan-sends-long-electric-whip-into-orbit-to-tame-space-junk https://www.npr.org/2021/03/21/979815691/new-effort-to-clean-up-space-junk-prepares-to-launch https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/30/business/space-debris-capture/index.html

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