Japan successfully launched a rocket carrying the unmanned cargo spaceship Kounotori 6 to deliver supplies for astronauts living in the International Space Station (ISS).
It also carried a ‘space junk’ collector that was made with the help of a fishnet company.
Scientists at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) experimented with a tether to pull junk out of orbit around Earth, clearing up tonnes of space clutter including cast-off equipment from old satellites and pieces of rocket.
Researchers are using a so-called electrodynamic tether made from thin wires of stainless steel and aluminium. The idea is that one end of the strip will be attached to debris which can damage working equipment — there are hundreds of collisions every year.
The 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.
Eventually the detritus will enter the Earth’s atmosphere, burning up harmlessly long before it has a chance to crash to the planet’s surface.
