Cube sail

This is clever!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8590103.stm

It is a device to clear pieces of space junk out of orbit by attaching a small sail to them.

This is clever!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8590103.stm

It is a device to clear pieces of space junk out of orbit by attaching a small sail to them.

Sounds promising. I believe it will be uneffective for objects in medium earth orbit however.

True but there is an ESA project to build a "clean up sat" that has an automated procedure to evaluate a piece of space debris and then dock and decelerate it. I wish I could find the link to it....

It doesn't take much energy to get something to deorbit. All you really have to do is increase its eccentricity enough for it to start dipping into the upper atmosphere at each perihelion. Its all about timing.

The real danger isn't the dead sats and booster sections, its all of the little chunks of junk that are too small to be tracked or captured/deorbited, but still pose a hazard to spacecraft.