April 27, 2009 We’ve recently examined the danger posed to
future space missions by the ever increasing collection of space
junk orbiting the Earth. Now a plan by a pair of space engineers
to use a sail to take out the trash – or rather, bring it back
to Earth - may help to stop future space missions adding to the
problem of space junk. Recent near misses between orbital debris
and the space shuttle on its mission to service the Hubble Space
Telescope only serve to highlight the problem. In fact, NASA’s
Steve Stich believes the risk of a micrometeroid or orbital
debris (MMOD) hit is the greatest risk to the shuttle program.
According to the Hypervelocity Impact Database obtained by Wired
Science, in the 54 missions from STS-50 through STS-114, space
junk and meteoroids hit shuttle windows 1,634 times, which
required 92 window replacements, while the shuttle's radiator
was hit 317 times, punching holes in the radiator's facesheet 53
times. While none of those impacts was enough to endanger the
crew or the shut