'Beam me up, Scotty': Scientists to use sci-fi beam to get rid of real space junk

Nothing beats the cool sci-fi film scene where a film's protagonist racing against time is beamed up by aliens or other powerful entities at the last minute. But what if this beam could be used to remove junk from space?

This could soon be a reality as scientists develop a high-intensity real-life tractor beam that could nudge dangerous space junk out of the Earth's orbit. Here's how it will work.

Removing space junk is a high-stakes mission. With the commercial space industry gaining prominence, the number of satellites in our planet's orbit is predicted to rise manifold. These would eventually wear out and litter the already crowded 'space junkyard' that surrounds the Earth.

Scientists are developing the tractor beam dubbed 'electrostatic tractor' that could potentially help rid of dead satellites and clear space for new ones.

However, it is an expensive undertaking. Talking to Live Science, project researcher Kaylee Champion said, "The science is pretty much there, but the funding is not."

The prototype itself could cost millions, and an operation full-scale version much more.

Behind the idea is Hanspeter Schaub, an aerospace engineering professor at CU Boulder. He came up with the idea in the aftermath of a major satellite collision in 2009 — when Iridium 33, an active communications satellite, smashed into Kosmos 2251, a defunct Russian military spacecraft. 

He speculates that a spacecraft could be pulled out of harm's way by using attraction between two objects, one charged positively and one negatively. This attraction can be used to make the objects "stick" together, and then the defunct satellite could be pulled away and released into space to drift forever.

Schaub and his team have spent a decade on developing the idea, which one day might help clear the "prime estate" of space orbit.

Space junk can put space missions and satellite launches at significant risk. Upon launch, the space vehicles can potentially collide with the junk that is crowding the planet's orbit. This junk could also plummet down into the Earth's atmosphere, and pollute the atmosphere with metals, obscuring our view of the cosmos.

In a statement released a few months back, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said: "If left unchecked, the accumulation of orbital debris will increase the risk of collisions and clutter orbits used for human spaceflight and satellites providing communications, weather and Global Positioning System services." 

As per the FAA, as of July 2023, the Earth's orbit contains over 23,000 orbital objects of sizes 10 cm and above. Furthermore, there are around one-half million objects sized between 1 and 10 cm, over 100 million larger than 1mm.