Electrostatic “Tractor Beams” being developed to remove space debris from orbit

This will be good for clearing up right beside derelict satellites, but as a wise man once said,

"Space is big, really big."

I hope this facilitates some kind of recycling and resource recovery.

key paragraphs as tl;dr

> In a simple sense, he explained, the team's concept for an "electrostatic tractor" works a bit like rubbing a balloon on your head to make your hair stand on end. First, a servicing ship would approach a derelict satellite from a distance of about 15 to 25 meters (49 to 89 feet), then zap it with a beam of electrons. Those electrons would give the space debris a negative charge, while making the servicer more positive.

> "With that attractive force, you can essentially tug away the debris without ever touching it," Hammerl said. "It acts like what we call a virtual tether."

> It seems to work, too. Based on experiments in ECLIPS and computer models, the researchers calculate that an electrostatic tug could pull a satellite weighing several tons about 200 miles in two to three months. That's a sluggish pace, but good enough to remove what are essentially glorified paperweights from precious orbital slots.