On Earth's surface, it’s fairly easy for us to manage our waste by recycling and reusing. But how do we manage the waste just above Earth’s atmosphere? Researchers have estimated that there are around 170,000,000 pieces of space debris orbiting Earth. This includes defunct satellites and broken off parts of man-made rockets which have broken during entry and exit of Earth’s atmosphere. All this debris causes risks to active satellites and makes it difficult for space crafts to manoeuvre around on space missions. A collision with a tiny bit of debris could have the same force as an exploding hand grenade, due to the orbital velocity. In other words, Earth’s atmosphere is like a huge minefield.
One company is taking it upon themselves to help clear up Earth’s space minefield. Astroscale has a team of specialist known as “Space Sweepers” who are developing key technologies to clean the debris. One method is using magnets to force the debris down. This will cause the debris to disintegrate upon re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. The other method is using a net to collect defunct satellites and other debris. These satellites are also known as End-of-Life Service by Astroscale (ELSA). ELSA will be ready for demonstration in October 2019.
Other proposed methods of cleaning the debris are using satellites with robotic arms to manoeuvre itself around the debris and grab a hold of it, this would then allow the debris to either be collected and disposed upon re-entry.
Many scientists state there is not enough funding to support space debris cleaning technologies, however, the risk of debris colliding with expensive satellites should give incentive for clean-up projects to be funded.
Whilst projects are being set up to clean the debris already in space, companies are also focusing their efforts to ensure space missions leave little or no debris.
SPACE?
How are we going to clean up
JANUARY 2018 | MANE AUTOMOTIVE, F1 & MOTORSPORT | 13