Buckle up, space cowboys, because cleaning up orbital trash just got a plasma-powered upgrade straight out of a fusion reactor fever dream. Forget nets and harpoons; Japanese researcher Kazunori Takahashi is cooking up a bi-directional thruster that blasts space junk with a plasma beam to slow it down for a fiery reentry, all while counter-thrusting to stay put like a cosmic yo-yo. Inspired by magnetic cusps that keep fusion plasma from melting walls, this gizmo amps up the force by 20 percent, hitting 25 millinewtons—enough to nudge a ton of debris out of orbit in 100 days. Sure, it guzzles argon fuel and needs testing in real vacuum vibes, but in a world teetering on Kessler Syndrome (where space becomes a junkyard pinball machine), this non-contact zapper could be our ticket to clear skies. Who knew saving space would involve double-barreled plasma party tricks?
A Fusion-Reactor-Inspired Thruster Could Deorbit Space Junk
