It is well known that the near -Earth space over the past decades has turned into a dump of cosmic garbage, which is a danger to existing spacecraft. According to official figures, only large fragments (over 10 cm) have about 18 thousand. It is natural that the mainly leading space powers – the USA, Russia and China are “littering”.
The problem has already become global, and it will have to be solved by the whole world. The contribution of Russia will be the space “garbage man” —Roscosmos experts are already working on its creation. The function of the “broom”, with which the near -Earth space will be cleaned of cosmic garbage, will take on special ion engines.
Musary satellite will act according to the following scheme. Equipped with two engines, he approaches an object that he has to remove and stops near him in the immediate vicinity.
Having chosen the optimal position, the “garbage man” captures itself on the spot, turning on both engines with the same power, and literally “blows” the garbage from the orbit, after which he, having lost speed, leaves the orbit and burns in the atmosphere.
According to the developers, to clean one fragment of cosmic debris (depending on its dimensions), the “scum” with a 5 kilowatt engine will have to spend up to two weeks.