Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde has spent much of his time seeking artistic solutions to solve our environmental problems. His past projects include "Bioluminescent(生物发光)Trees" to light streets, a "Smog-Free Tower" to clean Beijing's polluted air and "Gates of Light", which uses the headlamps of passing cars to light up the 60 floodgates of the Afsluitdijk, a major dam in the Netherlands. Now, he is hoping to use his skills to solve a pressing global problem—space junk!
Scientists guess that there are over 500, 000 bits of large rubbish. To deal with the problem, Roosegaarde intends to achieve his goal by educating the public about the need of the situation and coming up with possible solutions. The plan, called the Space Waste Lab, started in October 2018 with a laser(激光)show in the Netherlands. The unique outdoor artwork of LEDs used real-time tracking information to point at pieces of space junk floating at altitudes of 200 to 20, 000 kilometers. The experience was designed to make the public know more about how much space junk there are.
To find a solution, the designer has been thinking with experts. One of the projects being considered is "Shooting Stars", which attempts to reintroduce the trash to the atmosphere in a controlled way. Upon reentry the waste would burn in the atmosphere like a shooting star. Roosegaardeenvisagesthat, if successful, burning space trash could someday replace fireworks at large public events!
In September 2018, the Remove DEBRIS satellite successfully sent a net to catch a target while orbiting at an altitude of about 300 kilometers (190 miles). Sometime this year, the capsule will set free a harpoon that has been designed to remove space trash. At the end of its task, Remove DEBRIS will let go for a sail to bring the satellite itself, and hopefully some trash, back into the atmosphere, where it will burn up.
