DARPA seeks orbital wheely-bin plan

[Rick]

Must cope with rubbish up to 'derelict spaceship' size

The noted US military bonkers-boffinry bureau, DARPA, announced yesterday that it would like to hear from anyone with ideas for cleaning up the large amounts of space debris orbiting the Earth. Aerospace globocorp Boeing has already indicated that it is interested.

According to DARPA:

Since the advent of the space age over five decades ago, more than thirty-five thousand man-made objects have been cataloged by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network. Nearly twenty-thousand of those objects remain in orbit today, ninety-four percent of which are non-functioning orbital debris.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/18/darpa_orbital_debris/