This page obtained the image from a tweet (Or an x?) from the company, Astroscale, that instead had a link to a page [1] that explains:
> The ADRAS-J spacecraft was selected by JAXA for Phase I of its Commercial Removal of Debris Demonstration (CRD2) program. Astroscale Japan is responsible for the design, manufacture, test, launch and operations of ADRAS-J.
Image is also available for download [2]
[1] https://astroscale.com/astroscale-unveils-worlds-first-image...
It still doesn't seem economical or even all that feasible.
Next most unguided mass is still in a small number of giant objects so we don’t need to clean everything just removing the biggest objects in the most crowded orbits prevents things from getting worse.
You don’t need to get junk into a low orbit. A highly elliptical one that just touches earth’s atmosphere will deorbit things eventually. Which then sets up for the next intercept as DeltaV as perigee magnifies where your perigee ends up. Further the goal is to intercept at a reasonably low relative velocity you don’t actually need to match each of those orbits. (You can also use earth’s atmosphere to lower your perigee essentially for free so aim for the highest orbit first and work down the list.)
Finally you don’t need to handle everything with a single device. Even just having one in a polar orbit and one in an equatorial orbit greatly reduces deltaV requirements.
Historically orbital slingshots generally make use of this effect. Technically an asteroid can passively get a boost from an orbital slingshot but probes do a burn because they get more bang from the same propelent.
I'll nickname them as "Anthropogenic Meterorites" (unless they already have a name.)
I will also be the one starting the debate that I don't believe they are actually man-made, meteorites have been falling forever and there is no scientific consensus it's our fault.