REFLECTION ON MASS CHALLENGE FINALIST D-ORBIT.

If you are Science-fiction oriented like me, you can't help but cheer for one of the 2014 Mass Challenge finalist, the Italian company D-Orbit.

They purport to assist with the solution of one of the problems that plague our satellites these days: the enormous amount of satellites in existence. According with US Space Surveillance Network there are approximately 3000 satellites in orbit out of some 8000 man-made objects in total. It is a fact that all satellites are sent up there with an expiration date. Until now, once the useful life of satellite is reached, they will remain up there until its orbit decays and then, we hope that they will burn in reentry and that the pieces are not going to fall in somebody's head or house.

Enter D-Orbit. This company proposed to sell and install "devices"  (I love this term) and it will do one of three things, depending on the desires of the satellite owner:

-it will send them back to Earth and burn them in reentry due to friction with the atmosphere.

-it will guide them to a safe location on Earth for destruction, such as the Pacific or Atlantic Ocean,

-or it will simply send the inoperative satellite to a higher orbit to a so-called "satellite graveyard".

This is an idea whose time has come. Due to the sheer numbers of satellites in orbit, it is feared that the launching of space vehicles, such as the Shuttle as well as private venture vehicles like the Space-X rockets will experience damage that can be catastrophic to them if a solution, such as the one espoused by D-Orbit,is not put in action.