Space Junk

Swiss research institute EPFL has announced that its CleanSpace One spacecraft will utilize a folding conical net to essentially gobble up bits of space garbage. It's part of an effort to clean up orbital debris.

The ESA has been testing the possibility of using one of mankind's earliest inventions to cope with one of its newest challenges, by testing a concept that would allow satellites to net and de-orbit space debris in a safe and controlled manner.

Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne (EPFL) and Swiss Space Systems (S3) have formed a partnership to launch the CleanSpace One satellite into orbit to collect space debris using a launch system that promises to be cheaper than using conventional techniques.

The Fermi gamma-ray space telescope and a Soviet-era spy satellite nearly collided in orbit last year.

NASA and cooperating agencies are building a DebriSat, which will be demolished by a hunk of aluminum traveling at over 4 miles/second (6.4 km/s), to modernize orbital collision models.

MIT has developed penny-sized microthrusters for use in cubesat nanosatellites.

The CleanSpace One satellite is being designed to grab expired satellites from orbit, and bring them back to Earth.