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A new report commissioned by NASA has claimed that the quantity of hazardous material orbiting the Earth ("space junk") has reached a critical tipping point and now poses a real and increasing danger to expensive satellites and the International Space Station.

The report suggest that a rigorous clean-up strategy now needs to be put in place; some of the techniques suggested for capturing the space debris include: catching debris with nets, using giant magnets or vast umbrellas.

Donald Kessler, chair of the committee responsible for the report , said: "The current space environment is growing increasingly hazardous to spacecraft and astronauts, and NASA now needs to determine the best path forward for tackling the multifaceted problems caused by meteoroids and orbital debris that put human and robotic space operations at risk."

Objects in space ranging from the huge upper stages of Russian rockets to tiny particles of liquid coolant are tracked by ground based radars operated by Nasa and other space agencies. About half a million fragments and objects larger than a centimetre are in low orbit around Earth. There are tens of millions of particles larger than a millimetre.

Even minuscule specks of debris can cause serious damage to spacecraft and satellites because of the immense speeds at which they travel.

However, the clean-up operation is not as straightforward as it seems, mainly due to the fact that current legislation restricts countries to salvaging only their own objects from space. This technicality, combined with countries' traditional hostility and suspicion with regards to other nations' satellite technology and space programmes, means that the issue may lie unresolved for a while yet, during which time the problem is only going to get worse.

You can download the full report: 'Limiting future collision risk to spacecraft' below the image.

An artist's impression of the Space Debris problem can be seen below.

This news story originally appeared on the Guardian website