tlb wrote:Bluesqueak wrote:And which class of ship is designed to find and retrieve chunks of space junk?
We do know that we could sweep the areas with space tugs moving across the expected orbits of the junk if we are satisfied with destroying it. Or they could use tractor beams on anything that needed examining or saving.
Yes, that would be a good method for 'we need this space cleared, and we need it cleared now.' Agreed. And if a system does have an un-destroyed navy, even one consisting of older LACs, they could send them to examine any hulks or large enough chunks. If their tech is behind, they could learn a lot from reverse-engineering.
I still think the asteroid miners are best suited to finding the chunks that are only valuable as 'metal'.