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how does that solve anything?

getting hit by a chunk of wood at orbital speeds is pretty much the same as getting hit by same mass of ice or rock ..

That's not the goal...

"We are very concerned with the fact that all the satellites which re-enter the Earth's atmosphere burn and create tiny alumina particles which will float in the upper atmosphere for many years,"

It isn't the same. The density matters. A less dense object will spread the force of the impact over a larger area. It may be enough to result in deformation rather than puncture.

The reason knives cut is they concentrate the force over a very small area.

At a 10 km/s orbital encounter even a dry sponge will have no problem penetrating the metal hull of a spacecraft, both will turn to plasma. This is what a collision with a 7 gram object does[1], a sponge is about 100 grams and it's softness won't matter when it's traveling at hypervelocity.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station#/m...

Tornadoes have been known to embed bits of straw or dried grass into trees. And tornado speeds are a gentle walk in the park compared to orbital speeds.

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