In space, junk can make you scream. The International Space Station (ISS)regularly changes orbit to avoid colliding with derelict satellites, rocket stages and other objects whizzing around Earth at thousands of kilometres per hour. Soon robots may fly out to assess the danger presented by the vast array of objects not already tracked by radar. Alvar Saenz-Otero and his colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have built several self-guided robots. Each is a little smaller than a soccer ball and designed to investigate potentially damaging objects from a safe distance with a 3D stereo camera. The images are relayed to the crew aboard the ISS, who can decide how to proceed.
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