Read the comments. Very interesting.
You’re right, chessplayer. The comments at the end of the article you posted are very interesting and pretty much cover the range of opinions that can be held on this subject.
I agree with those posters, here and in the various articles, that say this issue of space debris (including H atoms) is old hat and that the Star Trek writers dealt with this issue and though they did so fictionally, with no real idea of whether we will ever be able to deal with it “actually”, the fact is that the tone of both articles — that this is some sort of revelation that throws all thoughts of star travel out the window — is pretty much rubbish.