alt Hacker NewsThere actually is one idea for cleaning up debris in high orbit: You launch tons of very fine powder into the orbits you wish to clear. These orbiting particles create drag on anything up there, so that their orbits degrade much faster. But the because the particles themselves are so tiny, they have a very low ballistic coefficient, and will deorbit quickly.
More: https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2019/10/25/space-debris-p...
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oofbey • yesterday at 5:02 PM
That’s a solid idea. Never heard that before. And it really seems like it would solve an otherwise extremely difficult problem.
It would not discriminate though. Everything in that orbit would be taken down - debris and any functional satellites.
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Hmm, seems like it would work for 800 km, but maybe not for 1000+ km? Just based on what he says there, which is that each 100 km increase is a factor of 10 in deorbit time, and it's 1 year at 800 km.