Japanese scientists are trying to take out the trash -- in space.
There are approximately 100 million bits of man-made junk floating in space, the majority of which is only 700 to 1,000 kilometers above the Earth's surface, according to Hong Kong-based newspaper South China Morning Post. And it's not just sitting pretty -- all of this debris poses a threat.
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The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has partnered with a fishing-equipment company to design a net that can catch space debris, much like how a fisherman would catch trout.
JAXA will send a rocket and satellite into orbit, where the latter will unreel a wire net approximately 300 meters long. The net will then generate a magnetic field, and if all goes well, catch some of the debris. Tests will begin in late February.
Satellites could be knocked out of orbit if hit by a large chunk of debris. The human crew on the International Space Station could also be at risk. What's more, there's a lot of dangerous junk to contend with: 29,000 of the pieces are larger than four inches each, which poses a huge risk since they're traveling at 15,500 miles per hour.
Rumors of a net solution first surfaced three years ago. If trials go well, the plan could be rolled out as early as 2019.
"We started work on this project about five years ago, and we are all excited to see the outcome of this first test," Koji Ozaki, the engineer leading the development team, told the South China Morning Post.
The United States has also been making an effort to reduce some of the junk. The Ottawa Citizen reported that the country signed a deal with Canada last month to share data on orbiting space debris.
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