Shiny New Space Fence To Monitor Orbiting Junk 76
coondoggie writes "Some work has begun on tracking and detecting the overabundance of space junk which has become a growing priority as all manner of satellites, rockets and possible commercial space shots are promised in the coming few years. Today Northrop Grumman said it grabbed $30 million from the US Air Force to start developing the first phase of a global space surveillance ground radar system. The new S-Band Space Fence is part of the Department of Defense's effort to detect and track what are known as resident space objects (RSO), consisting of thousands of pieces of space debris as well as commercial and military satellites. The new Space Fence will replace the current VHF Air Force Space Surveillance System built in 1961."
Even money bet that Northrup Grumman (Score:4, Insightful)
has created a sizeable percentage of the space-junk it's now offering to track.
Nifty business model, that.
Re:Deorbit (Score:2, Insightful)
Me, I think a giant space vacuum cleaner would do the job.. we just need to borrow one from the folk at Space Balls.
Now *that's* thinkin with yer dipstick!