Cleaning up space junk

The Pentagon wants a plan. [Link]

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency put out a notice yesterday requesting information on possible solutions to the infamous space debris problem.
“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,” the agency notes. “Nearly twenty-thousand of those objects remain in orbit today, ninety-four percent of which are non-functioning orbital debris.”
These figures do not even include the objects too small to count. Hundreds of thousands of these smaller objects are estimated to exist, and as debris hits other debris, it creates even more small pieces, exponentially increasing the objects that could threaten satellites and spacecraft.
Space debris has long been a concern as the number of satellites in orbit has increased over the years. But the issue was again highlighted in 2007, when a Chinese anti-satellite missile test created a massive debris field of some 40,000 pieces. The next year, the U.S. conducted its own shoot down of an errant satellite, creating yet another field of debris. The concern is that these pieces of debris could strike satellites, or a manned spacecraft, like the International Space Station. It doesn’t take much to cause a catastrophe; even something as small as a paint chip could prove potentially disastrous if it struck the space shuttle.

Here's an idea. For items smaller than a few inches, a small fleet of satellites with ion drives for long term performance and a steel backed aerogel catcher's mitt. It maneuvers to catch up to particles and small pieces of debris, going fast enough to catch them in the mitt, but not fast enough to damage the satellite or break the debris into more pieces. When it has filled it's mitt, it flips over and deorbits itself. The aerogel has already been used to capture, but not vaporize particles in the Stardust mission. The steel plate makes sure it doesn't damage the satellite.
For larger items, like whole satellites, replace the catcher's mitt with a grasping hand to capture the satellite and then change it's orbit to either a safe holding position or a controlled deorbit.
Once there are enough of these running regular sweeps, it will reduce the amount of debris and then keep it to safer levels. There's money to made, keeping the skies clear. [Link]