I found an interesting news item about an artificial satellite, called the Janitor Satellite, which is planned to be launched by Swiss scientists. The title of the news which caught my eye was very nice. I admire the sense of humor of the editors. It's "A Roomba for space!" The url of the news is as follows. Please check it.
http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-02-15/news/31064905_1_satellite-orbit-debris
Additionally, I investigated other medias to know the details of the project. According to the news, about 16000 items of space debris, such as the ruins of rockets and satellites, which are more than 10 cm in diameter, are floating and orbiting around the earth at the speed of 18000 km/h. This debris could destroy the satellites in orbit and kill the astronauts.
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne (EPFL) worries about the growing risk of space waste and developed the satellite, "Clean Space One". This satellite is supposed to catch space waste, re-enter the atmosphere with them and finally burn itself up. The price of this satellite is estimated to be 10,000,000 Swiss Franc (10 million in US dollars). Switzerland's commitment to nature is beyond question over the years. Knowing about this project, I deeply regarded Switzerland with admiration. Then a simple question came up; who would pay the cost of the project? I believe that China should be mainly responsible, because it intentionally destroyed some satellites in 2007 for military purposes, causing six astronomers' temporary evacuation from the international space station last year.
(Vocabulary)
janitor (学校・病院などの) 管理人, 用務員
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