Tag: tungsten dust
Could Dust Packed Missiles Clean Low-Earth Orbit?
Millions of small debris orbiting earth at Low Earth Orbit (LEO - at altitudes of 2,000 kilometers and below) are posing serious risk to manned and unmanned spacecraft. Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) suggest that ballistic missiles loaded with tons of tungsten dust could be used to ‘sweep’ these objects from their LEO orbit, slowing and lowering them into the upper atmosphere, where they will decay the heat generated from drag induced by the upper earth atmosphere.
