A European group led by Surrey University’s Surrey Space Centre has carried out the first ever successful demonstration of space waste removal technology.
Designed, built and manufactured by a consortium including Airbus, ArianeGroup and Airbus-subsidiary Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) the RemoveDEBRIS satellite technology is hoped could pave the way to clearing up the hundreds of thousands of objects in low space orbit.
The device was deployed from the International Space Station (ISS), having launched aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft in April 2018.
The experimental RemoveDEBRIS satellite first released the metal object and then fired a five metre wide net to capture it from a distance of six metres. The weight of the net will drag the toaster-sized object into the atmosphere over the next few months, where it will burn up.
Space debris is a growing problem. There are thought to be half a million objects larger than a tennis ball, up to 7,600 tonnes of ‘space junk’ orbiting the Earth and posing a risk to satellites and even the space station.
Only the largest pieces, mainly defunct satellites and rocket parts, can be tracked by radar.But even objects as small as a bolt can punch a hole in the honeycomb walls of satellites and their fragile wings of solar panels. RemoveDEBRIS is one of a number of efforts worldwide to develop technology to address this problem.
“To develop this net technology to capture space debris we spent 6 years testing in parabolic flights, in special drop towers and also thermal vacuum chambers. Our small team of engineers and technicians have done an amazing job moving us one step closer to clearing up low Earth orbit.” said Ingo Retat, Airbus RemoveDEBRIS project head.
In the coming months, RemoveDEBRIS will test more so-called active debris removal (ADR) technologies including a vision-based navigation system that uses cameras and LiDaR technology to analyse and observe potential pieces of debris; the first harpoon capture technology used in orbit; and a drag-sail that will bring the spacecraft out of orbit and into the Earth’s atmosphere where it will be destroyed.
According to Professor Guglielmo Aglietti, the director of the Surrey Space Centre, the RemoveDEBRIS satellite is the first step to dealing with space junk on a wider scale. "We believe the technologies we will be demonstrating with RemoveDEBRIS could provide feasible answers to the space junk problem—answers that could be used on future space missions in the very near future."