This debris is composed of parts of old satellites, as well as complete defunct satellites and missile bodies. The debris poses a risk to the International Space Station and threatens things we take for granted on Earth – weather forecasts, GPS and telecommunications. It’s a problem that’s getting worse as more and more satellites are launched every year by companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
A demonstration mission to test new technology developed by the Astroscale company to clean up space debris will be launched on Saturday in the early hours of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
A Soyuz 2 rocket will launch a 175 kilogram spacecraft into space with a satellite. The 17 kilogram spacecraft and satellite – the debris to be cleared – will separate and run a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse in the coming months.
Astroscale will test the spacecraft’s ability to grab a satellite and bring it to Earth’s atmosphere, where it will burn up. It will do this in a series of different maneuvers, and the mission is expected to end in September or October this year.
As part of the mission, the company will test whether the spacecraft can capture and dock the satellite as it tumbles through space at up to 17,500 miles per hour – several times faster than the speed of a bullet.
The tests rely on a magnetic coupling plate that locks onto the satellite. Astroscale said it hopes that all new satellites that are launched will eventually have this clutch plate so they can be safely removed at the end of their life. In addition, Astroscale said it had already signed a deal with internet satellite company OneWeb.
“Now is the time to take the threat of debris seriously by committing to debris removal programs and preparing satellites for future end-of-life disposal,” said John Auburn, Astroscale UK CEO and Group Chief Commercial Officer.
“Avoiding catastrophic collisions will help protect the space ecosystem and ensure that all jobs can continue to thrive for generations to come.”
Astroscale is headquartered in Japan, but the mission is controlled from the United Kingdom.
Nets, harpoons and robotic arms
The technology being tested in this mission aims to remove satellites that have yet to be launched and does not address the problem of debris already in space. However, the company is partnering with JAXA, the Japan 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 space, is expected to be launched in 2025. This mission will use four robotic arms to collect the debris.
A 2018 demonstration mission successfully deployed a net to ensnare space debris, the first successful demonstration of space cleaning technology. The RemoveDebris experiment is led by a consortium of companies and researchers led by the UK’s Surrey Space Center and includes Airbus, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd., owned by Airbus and the French Ariane Group. It has also tried a method using a harpoon.
There are at least 26,000 pieces of space debris orbiting Earth that are the size of a softball or larger that can destroy a satellite upon impact; over 500,000 the size of a marble big enough to damage spacecraft or satellites; and more than 100 million pieces of debris the size of a grain of salt that could pierce a spacesuit, according to a January report from NASA.
In fact, the report said, the pieces of space junk that aremost dangerous to spacecraft and satellites are often the smallest because they are too small to be detected, and operators cannot maneuver to avoid them.
