This debris is composed of parts of ancient satellites, as well as complete satellites and rockets. The rubble poses risks to the International Space Station and threatens things we take for granted on Earth – weather forecasting, GPS and telecommunications. This is a problem that is getting worse with more and more satellites being launched every year by companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
A demonstration mission to test new technology developed by the company Astroscale to clean up space debris will begin on Saturday in the early morning hours of the Baikonur Food Modroom in Kazakhstan.
A Soyuz 2 rocket will shoot a 175-kilogram spacecraft into space with a satellite. The spacecraft and the 17 kilogram satellite – the debris that needs to be cleaned – will separate and then perform a high game of cat and mouse for the next few months.
Astroscale will test the spacecraft’s ability to jerk a satellite and bring it down to the Earth’s atmosphere, where it will burn. This will be done in a series of different ways, with the mission expected to end in September or October this year.
As part of the mission, the company will test whether the spacecraft can capture and ignite the satellite as it tumbles through space at 17,500 kilometers per hour – several times faster than the speed of a bullet.
The tests rely on a magnetic coupling plate to attach to the satellite. Astroscale said they hope all new satellites launched will eventually have this plant plate so they can be safely removed at the end of their lifespan. What’s more, Astroscale has said it has already signed an agreement with internet satellite company OneWeb.
“This is the time to take the threat of debris seriously by committing to the removal of junk programs and preparing satellites for future removal at the end of their lives,” said John Auburn, managing director of Astroscale UK and chief trading officer of the group, said.
“Avoiding catastrophic collisions will help protect the space ecosystem and ensure that all orbits can continue to thrive sustainably for future generations.”
Astroscale is headquartered in Japan, but the mission is controlled from the United Kingdom.
Nets, harps and robot arms
The technology being tested in this mission is aimed at removing satellites that have yet to be launched and does not address the problem of debris already in space. However, the company is working with JAXA, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, on its first debris removal project.
Other space agencies, institutions and companies are also working on technology to remove space debris.
ClearSpace 1, the European Space Agency’s mission to remove space debris from orbit, is expected to begin in 2025. This mission will use four robotic weapons to capture the debris.
A 2018 demonstration mission successfully deployed a net to trap space debris, the first successful demonstration of cleaning technology. The RemoveDebris experiment is led by a consortium of companies and researchers led by the Surrey Space Center in the UK and includes Airbus, the Airbus-owned Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. and the Ariane group in France. It also tried a method of using a harpoon.
There are at least 26,000 pieces of space debris that orbit the size of a soft ball or larger and that can destroy a satellite when it hits; more than 500,000 the size of a marble large enough to cause damage to spacecraft or satellites; and more than 100 million pieces of debris as large as a grain of salt that can penetrate a space pack, according to a NASA report in January.
In fact, according to the report, the pieces are space junk most dangerous for spacecraft and satellites are often the smallest because they are too small to be detected, and the drivers are unable to move to avoid them.
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