Nobody knows from what satellite or spacecraft this exactly came from, but the RAF's Defence Flying Complaints Investigation Team says that it definitely came from space. They say that its heavy mass indicates that it has been up in a decaying orbit for a decade or more.

Great. As if we didn't have enough with all that space junk risking the life of astronauts up there. [Daily Mail]

Just before the Discovery docked, the ISS crew was forced to crawl into the Soyuz TMA-13 in anticipation of a possible junk impact. That threat passed, but just days later and with the crew of the Discovery present, another piece of space junk has threatened to punch a hole in NASA's equipment and/or humans.

It bears repeating that this maneuver came in anticipation of possible junk impact. That is to say the survival of the crew of the ISS depended on our ability to detect the position and velocity of a four-inch piece of metal (or, as I suspect, a frozen, smiling Spacebat), which, by my calculations, makes the ISS about 5% less fun. Lasers are sounding more reasonable by the day. [Daily Mail]

In addition to the 19,000+ pieces of space junk floating around, the recent collision of two satellites has substantially increased the dangers of working in orbit. Close calls like this one may become the norm. [NASA Thanks Ryan]

According to the Wall Street Journal, the problem with debris eradication is that there's no money in it. Anybody can cough up a billion or so to launch a telecom satellite, but anyone who wants NASA or the ESA to start cleaning up has to come up with a plan that costs a lot less.

There's no money in it probably because nothing really bad has happened yet. According to that video down below, shuttle pilots have had near misses 12 times with pieces and parts that could've played serious havoc. Like so many busy intersections that are missing stop lights, the problem may require a fatal collision before money is made available. Though nobody died, the recent mid-air collision of US and Russian satellites was at least some kind of wake-up call.

In the meantime, here are some low-budget proposals:

1. Jonathan Campbell at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL says the answer is lasers, what the WSJ says would be "existing low-power lasers in quick pulses" to "singe the surface of an object in space" to "help point it downward." Campbell calls this Project Orion, as in the great hunter in the sky, but the Orion lasers would be based on land. (Note to self: Don't ever fly over Orion lasers.)

2. Jim Hollopeter, who works for Satellite Communications in Austin, TX, likes water cannons mounted to rockets, or as the Journal says, "aging rockets loaded with water to spray orbiting junk" thereby gradually pushing it towards the atmostphere to burn up, along with the spent rocket itself. "The water would turn to steam," says the Journal.

3. Heiner Klinkrad, head of ESA's Space Debris Office in Darmstadt, Germany, thinks we should give a hoot and just not litter. Rockets should not drop bolts and straps when they separate, and satellites should commit space hara-kiri, by steering themselves toward the atmosphere when their job is done. He's also looking into garbage collection strategies.

What definitely won't work:
• Big magnets - There's no iron in space debris.
• Powerful lasers - Would just make more space junk.
• Strong Nets - Cuz you're in space, not in some meadow chasing butterflies.

Read the full article at the WSJ for more good stuff, or watch their video here:

[WSJ]

"Future launches will have to be adjusted with regard to the fact that the debris [from the collision] has spread over an 800-km area and will gather at a common orbit in 5-6 years," said Alexander Stepanov, director of the Pulkovo Observatory in St. Petersburg.

According to NASA this massive cloud of human failure joins the 19,000 other objects that currently pollute the low and high orbit space around the planet. As we reported last week, the Hubble Space Telescope is already in danger.

On a related note, anyone who criticized the Pixar movie Wall-E for "liberal bias" or for "unfairly" depicting future humans as slovenly creatures that polluted Earth and space to the point where it was uninhabitable is a doofus. And so ends my personal rant for the day. [Space Fellowship]

NASA, which "as a matter of course, [does not] throw things overboard haphazardly", threw this tank overboard haphazardly when it was deemed too volatile to carry back on one of the agency's infrequent shuttle missions. No pieces larger that 15lbs are believed to have made it to the surface, but even assuming that half of the craft was vaporized upon reentry, that makes for an awful lot of smelly chunks of metal. Paul Hogan seems to have escaped injury, but alas, Steve Irwin is still dead. And so continues life in Oz. [Daily Mail]

Known as the Early Ammonia Servicer, or EAS, the tank was tossed overboard more than a year ago by NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson, during a July 2007 spacewalk. It is the largest piece of junk ever tossed overboard from the ISS, and yes, you read that right. An astronaut threw a 1,400-pound tank of toxic ammonia coolant into the void, on purpose—but it's not as crazy as it sounds (we think). The tank was made obsolete by recent ISS repairs, and the ammonia-filled vessel was deemed to dangerous for a shuttle ride home. Tossing was the only option.

"As a matter of course, we don't throw things overboard haphazardly," said Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station program. "We have a policy that has certain criteria we have to meet before you can throw something overboard."

Still, if you find a glowing chunk of space waste in your backyard this evening, please call local authorities. People outside the U.S. are encouraged to call the U.S. Department of State via diplomatic channels. And don't touch anything!

Bonus: You can track the space junk at Reentry News. [MSNBC via Slasdot]

The core of the system will involve tracking software that alerts a Autonomous Space Servicing Vehicle (ASSV) to a satellites location. Once found, it will draw the device into its bay where humans on the ground can conduct remote-controlled repairs. So far, the main obstacle to the development of the ASSV has been computer vision. Any robot attempting to grab a satellite must not only locate the device but determine and match its motion before making a move. To aid in that situation, the researchers will employ a form of light-based radar called LIDAR, "which provides a set of 3D points that accurately measure the surface geometry of the satellite." The video above illustrates this real-time tracking sequence. So far, there is no word on when such a system might be deployed. [Queens University via Science Daily]