Clearing up Space Debris

Dear Reader, 

Various entities are putting more and more satellites into Earth’s orbit every year making it extremely crowded with defunct satellites and debris. Scientists around the world are worried about accidental collisions affecting new space missions. Governments and start-ups are now working on numerous ways to fix this humungous mess. 

NASA has a special ORBITAL DEBRIS PROGRAM OFFICE according to which more than 23,000 orbital debris larger than 10 cm are known to exist. The estimated population of particles between 1 and 10 cm in diameter is approximately 500,000. The number of particles larger than 1 mm exceeds 100 million. As of January 1, 2020, the quantity of material orbiting the Earth exceeded 8,000 metric tons. 

NASA recently gave out a handbook on how to avoid crashes for commercial satellite providers, and this month signed an agreement with SpaceX to ensure that both prioritize safety during launches and orbital manoeuvres.  

Astroscale, is a Japanese startup which wants to remove hazardous clutter from an already congested space environment. It has achieved a critical breakthrough with the successful launch of its ELSA-D debris removal spacecraft last week.  

Russia’s GK Launch Services sent ELSA-D into space on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The system works by attempting to attach itself to dead satellites and push them towards the earth for burning up in the atmosphere, using a magnetic docking technology. 

Apart from Astroscale, ClearSpace SA, a Switzerland-based startup founded in 2018, is aiming to launch the world’s first active debris removal mission in collaboration with ESA by 2025. The mission’s objective will be to remove a fragment of the Vega rocket launched in 2013. It is a bulky piece, about a hundred kilos and a similar size to many satellites in orbit, which is why it has been selected.  

The concept is relatively simple—a vehicle will be launched with several mechanical arms that will trap the piece in orbit. Once captured, a descent manoeuvre will be initiated with which the spacecraft and the piece of junk will disintegrate due to the atmosphere's friction. 

In India, young Bengaluru-based space startup, Digantara Research and Technologies, is working towards setting up an orbit rubble tracking and monitoring services.  

Another Japanese company - Sumitomo Forestry and Kyoto University have joined forces to develop what they hope will be the world's first satellites made out of wood by 2023. This partnership will begin experimenting with different types of wood in extreme environments on Earth. 

These strategies will be critical since, by 2029, there will be an estimated 57,000 satellites in orbit. Fortunately, this time around, we have the knowledge and tools to resolve the situation before the accumulation of space junk becomes unsustainable. 

Credits : Akhil Handa,Aparna Anand