Israeli Teenager Proposes Orbital Recycling of Space Debris at COSPAR Conference

Fifteen-year-old Israeli student Ori Ben-Gour from Hod HaSharon has presented an innovative concept for tackling space debris at the 46th Scientific Assembly of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) in Florence. Instead of merely cleaning up orbital waste, Ben-Gour's project proposes transforming space junk into a valuable resource.

His idea involves establishing an orbital factory to process defunct satellites and rocket fragments. Collected debris would be sorted on a specialized platform, then melted down and repurposed into new components or structures usable in space. This dual approach aims to reduce the growing amount of space debris while simultaneously decreasing the need to launch raw materials from Earth for future space infrastructure.

The problem of space debris is critical, with tens of thousands of tracked fragments posing a significant threat to operational satellites and spacecraft due to their high velocities. Collisions can create numerous new fragments, escalating the debris problem through cascading effects.

Ben-Gour developed this concept in collaboration with American student Lisa Vigil-Benitez over approximately one year. The next step involves assessing the economic viability of such an orbital recycling operation. This marks Ben-Gour's second consecutive year receiving a special invitation to COSPAR. Last year, he presented a project on a constellation of small satellites for enhanced missile launch detection, a concept he noted could be life-saving for those under bombardment.