An estimated 130 million pieces of space debris are travelling in orbit at speeds of thousands of kilometres per hour. And to date, not a single piece has been recovered from space successfully. But several methods are in development to reduce the overpopulation of Earth’s orbit by man-made debris.
Professor emeritus Ralph Cooney joins the show to discuss why space junk is such a problem, and the top strategies currently being developed to deal with it — one of which is a giant harpoon.
Space debris around Earth from a top-down view Photo: Public Domain / Commons Wikimedia
