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Space
Space
Science
Andrew Jones

Space junk cleanup tech that could 'shepherd' debris into Earth's atmosphere gets US patent

An illustration of two golden, square metal satellites with solar panels floating above Earth in space.

The Japanese space-sustainability company Astroscale has unveiled a patent for what it describes as a new method for space debris removal.

Astroscale has developed a distributed, reusable system that aims to be more cost-effective and agile than traditional approaches to active debris removal (ADR). The system is described in a U.S. patent for its "Method and System for Multi-Object Space Debris Removal."

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