7.4 Fishing nets

Fishing nets are common in the ocean. But did you know they can also be used in space?

The Earth’s orbit is full of junk. In fact, scientists estimate that there are 370,000 pieces of space debris up there. There is concern that a piece of junk might crash into a satellite. A crash would result in thousands more pieces of debris, possibly destroying many other satellites. On Earth, we rely on satellites for things like GPS, international phone connections, television signals and weather forecasts, so this could be a big problem.

To deal with this, Japanese space scientists and a 100-year-old fishing net company came up with a brilliant idea. They will attach a thin metal fishing net to a satellite and then launch the satellite into space. Once in orbit, the net will be released from the satellite to collect space junk. Several weeks later the net, charged with electricity, will be pulled down by the Earth’s magnetic field. The net and the junk inside will both burn up as they enter Earth’s atmosphere. In this way, a simple fishing net will make space much cleaner and safer!