So much junk is in secure orbit that there are many altitudes in which it is unsafe to park research or communications satellites for fear of impact.
At the potential closing velocity of up to tens of kilometres per second, even small pieces - nuts, bolts, bits of wire, flecks of paint etc. can cause enormous damage.
Known to be in orbit are hundreds of defunct communications, research and spy satellites, as well as intact upper-stages of booster rockets, thousands of fragments of booster rockets formed when unexpended fuel exploded, two Hasselblad cameras, sundry tools lost by space shuttle crews, a few freeze dried Russian dogs (Heroes of the Soviet Union), two American (by nationality) monkeys and some rumoured bags of garbage.
The problem caused by the existence of this junk has long been recognised, but how to deal with it has been a hitherto unsolved challenge. However, a recent proposal by Dr Rube Goldberg, Professor of Astronautical Dipsomania at the Nevada Polytechnic Institute in Las Vegas has caused great excitement in Astronomical circles.
Dr Goldberg's plan is visionary: He proposes the construction of a large armoured satellite, orbiting at a safe altitude, and on completion boosting it to a pre-determined altitude which contains the greatest measurable collection of space junk.
The satellite will be at least 10 metres in diameter and enclosed in state of the art compound ceramic armour of the type currently used in main battle tanks and at least two metres in thickness.
Inside the satellite, a plutonium reactor will power the strongest possible electromagnet which can be carried aloft and capable of attracting that kind of junk attracted by a magnet, which would of course include the regular magnetic materials such as iron, stainless steel etc. but would also be capable of attracting other materials such as ionised aluminium, electrolytic copper and anhydrous silica which in their native form would not normally be considered magnetic.
Once a sufficient mass of material has been attracted, mostly over a long term by the magnetic field of the magnet gradually altering the orbits of the material, the new “artificial moon” should have attained sufficient mass to gravitationally attract those particles not attracted magnetically and the new “moon” should grow by accretion much in the same way that many asteroids are believed to have grown by the accumulation of boulders and interstellar dust and particles into rubble piles held together gravitationally.
In view of the current world recession, funding such a venture would be a major issue.
However, in the interim, a feasibility study will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Astronautical Dipsomania to be held in Las Vegas this coming July.
One problem could be securing international agreement on an appropriate name for the new “moon”, which would probably be at least as bright as Venus and easily seen without optical aid.