Lisa Grossman, reporter Swiss scientists plan to launch a
shoebox-sized satellite with jellyfish-like tentacles to sweep
up space junk as early as 2016. The $11 million satellite,
called CleanSpace One, would chase down space junk and drag it
out of orbit, burning up during atmospheric re-entry in the
process. Swiss space scientists hope this will be the first of a
fleet of "janitor" satellites. "We want to offer and sell a
whole family of ready-made systems, designed as sustainably as
possible, that are able to de-orbit several different kinds of
satellites," said Volker Gass, director of the Swiss Space
Center at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne. The cloud
of debris from dead or discarded spacecraft circling the Earth
poses a serious threat to active satellites, like those used for
GPS or telecommunications, as well as to the six astronauts
aboard the International Space Station. NASA estimates that more
than 6000 tonnes of space junk zip around the planet at speeds
of about 28,000 kilometres per