SPACE JUNK is a problem. Solution? Ballistic gas clouds. Oh, humans.

Got a problem? Blow it the fuck up! Such is the mantra of the Western world, and at the very worst results have been mixed. We’re taking our tried and true method to space now, folks. There is a lot of junk up there, and certainly there is only one way to dispose of it. By explodey-time.

Gizmodo:

After more than 50 years of space flight, so much litter has accumulated that some experts predict near-Earth space will becomedifficult to navigate by mid-century unless agencies start removing the mess.

Most space junk can burn up safely during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, but that means something needs to nudge it out of orbit. The trick is, how do you deliver an orbital clean-up crew without adding more rubbish?

So far, ideas for sweeping up near-Earth space include attaching sails to derelict satellites to slow them down, sending tentacled janitor robots to drag junk out of orbit or deploying enormous robot-pulled nets to trawl for debris.

One problem with nets, sails and janitor bots is that they need lofting on orbital rockets that themselves could leave behind space litter.

Boeing’s plan suggests sending up a rocket carrying a tank of a cryogenic inert gas such as xenon or krypton. At the top of a trajectory designed to intercept a swarm of space junk, the rocket would vaporise its payload and “fire” up to 10 tonnes of gas through a special nozzle.

This cloud would dissipate in seconds, but its initial density would create enough drag to slow the debris, Boeing inventor Michael Dunn says in the patent.

Dunn has calculated that for an object moving at about 7.8 kilometres per second, the gas cloud could reduce orbital velocity by 0.2 kilometres per second – enough to condemn it to fiery incandescence in the upper atmosphere.