A schematic of the satellite used to clean up space junk.
The world’s first commercial space junk cleanup service system was launched on March 22 and is expected to begin large-scale demonstration work in June and July.
The End-of-Life Services by Astroscale demonstration (ELSA-d), led by a British company, includes two satellites, one to collect trash and the other to simulate trash for maneuvering demonstrations, and will be operated by the Harwell Hi-Tech Park in Oxfordshire, England. Oxfordshire, England, Harwell High Technology Park (Harwell Campus) of the British National In-Orbit Servicing Control Facility (National In-Orbit Servicing Control Facility) control operations.
The European Space Agency (ESA) says there are about 9,200 tons of space junk over the Earth, with 34,000 objects larger than 10 centimeters and as many as 128 million objects between 1 millimeter and 1 centimeter. It is estimated that this is junk caused by more than 560 breakups, explosions, impacts or accidental events.
Since 1957, various rockets have launched at least 10,000 satellites into Earth’s orbit, and there are now about 6,250 in orbit, of which only about 3,700 are still functioning.
The ELSA-d design is equipped with a proximity object sensor, and a magnetic docking mechanism to safely remove junk from space orbit.
One of the satellites in the demonstration system for this launch is used to simulate an end-of-life satellite in space. There will be several demonstrations of docking, releasing and other technical operations to show the system’s ability to locate surrounding space junk and scrapped satellites and dock with them to collect them.
UK Science Minister Amanda Solloway said, “Removing dangerous space junk is not only good for the environment, it is also an important business opportunity for the UK and Astroscale will be leading the way in showing the world how to create a safe space environment.”
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