Science

nitpicker

(7,153 posts) Tue Jun 26, 2018, 05:19 AM Jun 2018

RemoveDebris: Mission to clear a huge mess above Earth

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44603780

RemoveDebris: Mission to clear a huge mess above Earth

By Jonathan Amos
BBC Science Correspondent

25 June 2018

Go! This is the moment the UK-led RemoveDebris mission left the International Space Station (ISS). The small satellite has a big job ahead - to trial the technologies that could one day be used to clean up orbiting junk. It carries a net to trap an object, and a harpoon that it will fire at a target to prove such projectiles can be used effectively in weightless conditions.

At 100kg, RemoveDebris is actually the largest sat yet released from the ISS. The time for its ejection last week was chosen very carefully so that the spacecraft would immediately fly over its control station - in Guildford, southern England. Engineers picked up its signal on the first pass overhead.
(snip)

The RemoveDebris project has its scientific leadership at the Surrey Space Centre, University of Surrey; and was assembled at Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. But the mission has technical input from across Europe, and it is the European Commission that has put up half the €15m (£13m) cost.

RemoveDebris will go through a few weeks of commissioning tests before beginning its experiments.
(snip)

3 replies

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Highlight:

RemoveDebris: Mission to clear a huge mess above Earth (Original Post) nitpicker Jun 2018 OP

We gotta work on MFM008 Jun 2018 #1

A Unique Plastic Collecting Device Is About to Take on The Great Pacific Garbage Patch csziggy Jun 2018 #3

Not surprising the Europeans are leading on this... Wounded Bear Jun 2018 #2

MFM008

(19,818 posts)

1. We gotta work on

Reply to nitpicker (Original post)

Tue Jun 26, 2018, 08:06 AM

Jun 2018

The ocean junk as well.....

csziggy

(34,137 posts)

3. A Unique Plastic Collecting Device Is About to Take on The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Reply to MFM008 (Reply #1)

Wed Jun 27, 2018, 12:13 AM

Jun 2018

A Unique Plastic Collecting Device Is About to Take on The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

But some people say it's a bad idea.
MICHELLE STARR
24 APR 2018

After years in development, the world's first passive plastic collection device is going to be deployed in the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to do something about plastic pollution.

Dedicated to removing debris from the oceans, the device will be set up between California and Hawaii in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a region with a high concentration of plastic pollution in the North Pacific Gyre.

It was designed by The Ocean Cleanup, a foundation created by Dutch student Boyan Slat at the age of 18.

The collector is an easy to understand concept. Long, durable polyurethane booms filled with air float on top of the ocean, slowed by anchors to keep the collector moving more slowly than ocean currents, which will sweep the plastic right into the collectors.
More: https://www.sciencealert.com/ocean-plastic-collector-pollution-great-pacific-garbage-patch-ocean-cleanup

The Ocean Cleanup is a non-profit organization, developing advanced technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic.

By utilizing the ocean currents to our advantage, our passive drifting systems are estimated to clean up half the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 5 years’ time
https://www.theoceancleanup.com/about/

Wounded Bear

(58,706 posts)

2. Not surprising the Europeans are leading on this...

Reply to nitpicker (Original post)

Tue Jun 26, 2018, 09:11 AM

Jun 2018

We Americans are not very good at cleaning up our own messes.

Best of luck to the project, though. Pretty badly needed.

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