Boeing patents unique idea about removing space debris

The sky at clear nights is usually a beautiful sight, lit with all those stars and other heavenly bodies. However, in real, it may not be all that heavenly, given the sheer amount of debris that is floating around in the space. Most of this debris has been generated by us humans.

Beoing seems to have come up with a very unique idea to get rid of this debris and the company has already patented the idea. In a patent application, the company elaborates that by shooting a cryoigenic inert gas towards a piece of debris, it would slow down the speed of the body and then let it move into Earth’s atmosphere and burn itself to nothing.

Given the sheer amount of resistance a body has to undergo in moving through Earth’s atmosphere, smaller bodies are easily eliminated before they go beyond the upper environmental layer of the Earth. So although Boeing’s idea seems workable, it is up to the scientists to discern its feasibility.

Most of the space debris that surrounds our planet is the result of the missions launched by space agencies. Often, when a mission culminates, certain pieces of machinery are left in the space without any post-mission disposal plan for them. Such is the amount of this debris that it may become quite a problem for spacecrafts to move through the space around Earth within the next few decades if measures to eliminate this debris are not taken.

Salman Latif
Categories: General
Tags: Space