Scooping Space Waste Could Pave Way for Cosmic Elevator

Space enthusiasts and science-fiction fans have promoted the benefits of a space elevator for over 50 years. Plans and funding for such technology have intensified recently, but satellites, floating debris and other forms of space trash present a formidable obstacle to constructing an effective lift. Star, Inc. and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (known as DARPA to those familiar with the government's answer to sci-fi) believe they may have a solution to that galactic garbage problem, and it involves scooping up the waste with an arsenal of astronomical nets.

Star, Inc. president Jerome Pearson presented the plan at this year's Space Elevator Conference. Pearson contends that a fleet of garbage-collecting spacecraft, each equipped with approximately 200 nets, could -- over the course of seven years -- meander through low Earth orbit (LEO) and ensnare thousands of dangerous objects. Star, Inc. believes it is able to dispose of the captured trash by chucking it down to Earth's radiated nuclear waste-dump in the South Pacific, flinging it in a trajectory so that it eventually erodes in Earth's orbit. If that fails, Star proposes to actually recycle the trash in space for use in galactic construction projects.

The plan may seem somewhat ridiculous and far-fetched, but Star, Inc. hopes to perform a test flight in 2013 -- with full garbage service launching by 2017. Until that time arrives, Star, Inc. and DARPA definitely need to focus on changing the plan's name: Electrodynamic Debris Eliminator. After being spoiled by DARPA's GUARD-DOG, RATS and SMITE acronyms, EDDE is uninspired and unacceptable. REFUSE (Rovers Ensnaring Filth Unsafe for Space Elevator) could possibly work, though. [From: Tech World and PopSci]

Tags: darpa, DefenseAdvancedResearchProjectsAgency, space, SpaceElevator, SpaceTrash, starinc, StarInc., top