Space Junk: A New Approach to Cleaning Up Orbital Debris

Space has become a trash heap. According to NASA, there are more than 27,000 pieces of space junk bigger than the size of a softball currently orbiting Earth, and they are traveling at speeds of up to 17,500 mph, fast enough for a small chunk to damage a satellite or spacecraft like an intergalactic cannonball.

“What we wanted to do was to manipulate the…