ITWire

The bad news for the janitorial satellite is, 'Of course the satellite will only work once before it too is burned at 1,000°C (1,832°F).' Thus, both the janitorial satellite and the piece of space junk will hurl out of orbit and into Earth's atmosphere, to be destroyed as they descend to Earth.

Check out the SciTechDaily.com article 'CleanSpace One Satellite Will Remove Space Debris' for more on this technique for getting rid of space junk around our planet.

The article begins: 'The first orbital contact could take place in three to five years and scientists will choose between Switzerland's first orbiting object, the Swisscube picosatellite which was put in orbit in 2009, or its cousin TIsat, launched in July 2010, as the first target for cleanup.'

And, the Swiss Space Center's article 'Cleaning up Earth's orbit: A Swiss satellite tackles space debris' introduces the CleanSpace One project.

Further, the YouTube video 'CleanSpace One - a Swiss satellite to tackle space junk' also provides additional information on the problem of space junk and a solution 'CleanSpace One' by the Swiss Space Center.