It's part of a program to find new fields of space debris that could hit Earth.
Since then, both military and commercial satellite operators have put more resources into tracking space debris.
At one point in the preview we flew through space, navigating our way through space debris.
FORBES: 'Star Trek: The Video Game' - Some Hands-On First Impressions
Ultimately, however, nothing can be done about space debris, except to not make any more.
Time is running out to get serious about fixing the problem of space debris, experts say.
The equipment on the Argos satellite will be carried through the most troublesome region of space debris.
Despite the worry about the space debris problem, the outlook for the partly-built International Space Station is good.
"The problem with removing space debris is you don't have any financial benefit from doing it, " says Dr. Klinkrad.
WSJ: A Cosmic Question: How to Get Rid Of All That Orbiting Space Junk?
On rare occasions, the falling bits of space debris do hit now-populated areas.
At least it's got entire class of space debris named after it now.
ENGADGET: Alt-week 7.28.12: social mathematics, Pluto's moons and humans-on-a-chip
The scientists, whose research appears in the journal Science also found 20 newly formed craters left by impacts from space debris.
Unless space debris is actively tackled, some satellite orbits will become extremely hazardous over the next 200 years, a new study suggests.
The study was conducted for the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee.
U.S. tracking sensors determined the missile collision created hundreds of pieces of space debris, according to a U.S. official at the time.
The problem of collisions involving space debris is not a new one.
However between 500 and 600 miles (800 and 960 km) there is more space debris than predicted, no one knows why this is so.
And then there is, surprisingly, a substantial risk still associated with being in orbit, where you might be smacked by space debris, for example.
Observations of space debris suggest that at altitudes between 250 and 400 miles (400 and 640 km) there is less of it than was feared.
Project Orion's low-budget approach hits at a conundrum of space debris.
WSJ: A Cosmic Question: How to Get Rid Of All That Orbiting Space Junk?
The last major space debris collision was in 2009 between Iridium 33, an operational U.S. communications satellite, and Cosmos 2251, a decommissioned Russian satellite, Kelso said.
Entrepreneurs may even find ways to recycle and reuse on orbit the nearly 2, 000 metric tons of space debris, which includes ultra-high grade aerospace aluminum and other precious metals.
It remains to be seen if space debris was the cause of the accident, as Columbia's crew compartment has not been recovered in any identifiable form.
Space debris is tracked by the United States Space Surveillance Network that uses radar that can detect an object the size of a pea at 400 miles.
This is now the 17th-largest telescope in the world and is used to track space debris another application where the inability to point the telescope does not really matter that much.
The crew of the International Space Station is on alert this weekend thanks to a piece of space debris from an old Chinese satellite, which has the potential to hit the station.
FORBES: Progress 46 Successfully Docks With International Space Station
Esa is a member of the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC), a forum for the worldwide coordination of activities related to the issues of man-made and natural debris in space.
It has been calculated that just taking away a few key spent rocket stages or broken satellites would substantially reduce the potential for collision and cap the growth in space debris over coming decades.
Compared to the cost of losing a satellite or a shuttle to space debris impact, "this looks like a bargain, " says Dr. Campbell, who works at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
WSJ: A Cosmic Question: How to Get Rid Of All That Orbiting Space Junk?
Although the data speeds (at only 2, 400 bps) are not as zippy as a satellite link, the service is cheaper and keeps going if solar flares or space debris hit satellites, says the firm's boss, David Kagan.
The NASA scientist said the odds of an operational satellite being disabled by space debris remain quite small, though he points out that two have been lost after being hit by man-made debris -- a French satellite in 1996 and an American craft in 2009.
应用推荐