Traditionally, when satellites reach the end of their useful lives, they remain in orbit. The same goes for discarded rocket stages if they’re not nudged down into the atmosphere after use. All this space junk floating around is beginning to accumulate, causing the space around Earth to become crowded with useless items. These pieces break over time, resulting in smaller objects that can’t be tracked anymore. There are millions of such fragments.
Space debris is hazardous. Things move at insanely fast speeds in low-Earth orbit, so a collision with something even as small as a stray bolt can be catastrophic. The hefty objects are just as much a problem because they can collide, creating a cascade of smaller collisions and countless more untraceable small fragments.
Over the past six decades of space activities, over 5,500 launches have taken place, resulting in 42,000 tracked objects in orbit – of which 23,000 are still out there. The current launch rate is averaging at almost 100 launches per year – with four to five of them break up every year, adding to the accumulation of space debris around the planet.
Noting that this is a big problem that needs to be addressed, the European Space Agency (ESA) will be sending a massive claw into space to remove the buildup of space junk. The agency has finalized the mission’s contract to launch and will execute it in 2025. The ClearSpace-1 mission, as it is called, will be the first attempt to capture and dispose of a chunk of orbiting space garbage.
Swiss startup ClearSpace built the giant claw. The device will grab a piece of space debris the size of a washing machine with a four-armed claw and escort it to a lower orbit where it will all burn up when entering the atmosphere.
Head of ESA’s Clean Space Office, Luisa Innocenti, said:
The challenge is designing an imaging system that can quickly and autonomously characterize the object before the claw grapples it. You don’t know how it is moving, and the only way to know is to go up and look. My colleagues and I have also argued over the capture technique: Grabbing with a claw requires a close approach, whereas snaring in a net can be done from a safe distance—but has to work the first time.
In the end, they opted for the giant claw, preferring multiple attempts over distance security. The piece of debris being targeted is a simple 112-kilogram Vespa (Vega Secondary Payload Adapter). After this mission proves successful, the company will move to larger and more ambitious targets and assignments that can dispose of multiple targets simultaneously to reduce costs.
The ESA said in its announcement:
ClearSpace-1 will demonstrate the technical ability and commercial capacity to significantly enhance the long-term sustainability of spaceflight. A critical milestone for establishing a new commercial sector in space will be achieved with this contract signature. Purchasing the mission in an end-to-end service contract, rather than developing an ESA-defined spacecraft for in-house operation, represents a new way for ESA to do business.
The mission will cost €100 million (€86 million from ESA). It’s an expensive job but ensuring that the space around the planet remains clear is vital. If too much space debris accumulates around Earth, it will make future space launches impossible.
