There is believed to be an astonishing 170 million pieces of junk floating in Earth’s upper atmosphere, but only 34,000 are being tracked. Some 7,000 tonnes of space junk encircle our planet, as defunct satellites, junk from rockets and other metals and rocks build up close to Earth. Experts have previously warned that as space debris increases, it will make it harder for rocket’s to escape Earth’s orbit out of fear of colliding with an object, known as the ‘Klesser syndrome’.
Not only does it pose a threat to space travel but technologies such as mobile phones, television, GPS and weather related services also rely on satellites.
So a cataclysmic series of crashes could pose a threat to our already over-reliance for satellites.
However, the ESA now has plans to help clear up the mess by sending a kamikaze-bot into space.
The ClearSpace-1 project will be launched into orbit in 2025 where it will begin collecting rubbish as if it were a “tow truck”.
The machine will initially be launched 500 kilometres above the Earth’s surface for critical tests, before it is raised to between 660 kilometres and 800 kilometres.
In that region, it will target the leftovers of the Vespa (Vega Secondary Payload Adapter) – a 100kg payload which was launched in 2013.
When it has collected the debris, it will begin its descent into Earth where it will burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.
Luc Piguet, founder and CEO of ClearSpace, the company which designed the maintenance machine, said: “This is the right time for such a mission.
“The space debris issue is more pressing than ever before. Today we have nearly 2000 live satellites in space and more than 3000 failed ones.
“And in the coming years the number of satellites will increase by an order of magnitude, with multiple mega-constellations made up of hundreds or even thousands of satellites planned for low Earth orbit to deliver wide-coverage, low-latency telecommunications and monitoring services.
“The need is clear for a ‘tow truck’ to remove failed satellites from this highly trafficked region.”
ESA Director General Jan Wörner reiterated the need to clean up Earth’s orbit, saying: “Imagine how dangerous sailing the high seas would be if all the ships ever lost in history were still drifting on top of the water.
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“That is the current situation in orbit, and it cannot be allowed to continue. ESA’s Member States have given their strong support to this new mission, which also points the way forward to essential new commercial services in the future.”
Luisa Innocenti, heading ESA’s Clean Space initiative, said: “Even if all space launches were halted tomorrow, projections show that the overall orbital debris population will continue to grow, as collisions between items generate fresh debris in a cascade effect.
“We need to develop technologies to avoid creating new debris and removing the debris already up there.”
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