If the plan is to just grab a single client spacecraft, and tow it then this is basically already in progress. We will see this happen when NASA launches OSAM.
Seems like an arm that can clamp to the marman ring costs a lot less, and can be ready now.
To go full sci-fi, though, lasers are likely a good tool for smaller debris. High power lasers can ablate the prograde side of small debris, using the gassified solids to push the debris into a lower orbit until the atmosphere can take over.
In very similar technology, I would suggest reading about electrodynamic tethers, where instead of shooting electrons at ships, you can use a long wire to claw your way through earth's magnetic field.
As is said in the article, the advantage of being touchless and to not destroy the debris is to not make the problem worse: one debris is not problem, but a million debris from the destruction is a catastrophe.
Physical contact have much higher risks of accidents, and destroying the debris is just a no go. I know a laser can push the debris in earth atmosphere, they don’t talk about this case though.
Now the only reason this is a terrible idea is that it requires first rendezvousing with a spacecraft every time you want to deorbit it. You’ll have the propellent to do this what, 2 or 3 times for every garbage collection spacecraft launched? That’s one enormous cost…
Yeah, we have hall effect thrusters, but it doesn’t really matter, the spacecraft still needs to push the mass of both spacecrafts a pretty significant distance and then return to the orbit of was at.
That’s just a lot of work.
I’ll admit, that using this for cleaning up geostationary orbit is more viable that leo, but it’s still questionable how long this will actually be useful.
I don’t think that would happen (very much depends on the set up), but either way it’ll just naturally resolve itself. Even in high orbits, there’s plenty of gas molecules bumping around, charged things will preferentially bump into things with the opposing charge, so the residual atmosphere can probably carry most of that charge away. It all depends on the relative rates though.
Well in a kind of way they have achieved their goal it’s just that incrementally creeping up on it rather than one big ground event. If you have cancer now your life expectancy is much better than it was 30 years ago. And in 10 years it’ll be even better.
Same with fusion. We’re getting closer and closer to actually having the technology.
People don’t like to hear it but technological development and progress is slow and kind of boring for the most part.
Cold fusion was always a hoax, as far as I know. Regular hot fusion has been 20 years away for 50 years, but we may at last be seeing some progress. ITER is finally being assembled (very slowly), and some of the newer startups like Helion and Commonwealth Fusion Systems seem promising. NIF also achieved Q > 1 last year, but inertial confinement doesn’t easily scale up to a power plant.
i’m guessing this was on some scifi writer’s bingo card, if didn’t explicitly write about it: strap a person into a small craft for 36 months of service and they zoom around earth’s orbit zapping space trash while limbs and mind atrophy, drinking own piss, watching videos of life on earth, kids growing up etc, just to pay for an extra three years of health care
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