On: Orbital Space Debris Caught for the First Time

[sandworm101]

No.

>>> The mission involves deploying these cubesats as artificial space junk and them capturing them to demonstrate the effectiveness debris removal technology.

It picked up trash that it released. It did not intercept trash. It grabbed a conveniently placed and engineered object with virtually identical orbital parameters.

[jniedrauer → sandworm101]

How is this different than capturing real trash, minus some extra Δv to match orbits?

[sandworm101 → jniedrauer]

(1) Finding the trash, targeting it with sensors. (2) Irregular shape/rotation of trash. (3) Trash with sharp edges.