Name: Risks of Space Debris Accident | How to Remove Space Junk
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Risks of Space Debris Accident | How to Remove Space Junk

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Last September, a tiny piece of shrapnel from the body of a Japanese H-2A rocket hurtled toward the (ISS) and its crew at 17,500 miles per hour. An hour before the projected collision, flight controllers back on Earth powered up the spacecraft’s thrusters and moved it out of the way. That scrap of junk could have punched a hole in the hull of the ISS, and it was the station’s third close call in two weeks. Since the Soviet Union launched in 1957, we’ve sent more than 10,000 objects into orbit. As these spacecraft increasingly collide, break apart, or explode, they generate massive clouds of debris that sweep across low-Earth orbit and pose a threat to the roughly 3,300 functioning we rely on for navigation, communication, and reconnaissance.This content is imported from {embed-name}. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and other agencies around the world are developing plans with commercial partners and research institutions to declutter Earth’s orbit. One organization in particular, the Tokyo-based Astroscale, has proposed a way to remove debris using a magnetic docking plate designed to connect with ailing spacecraft and drag them out of orbit. If successful, the method could become universal.“Get rid of the ticking time-bombs.”This March, Astroscale will launch the ELSA-d mission, which will test the new method for capturing and deorbiting disabled spacecraft with a nearly 400-pound servicing satellite and a 44-pound target satellite. The servicing satellite will usher dilapidated vehicles (in this case, the target satellite) either to a safer orbit or toward reentry in Earth’s atmosphere.Both the servicing satellite and the target satellite are equipped with ferromagnetic docking plates that, when aligned, snap together like extremely strong refrigerator magnets. Over the course of the mission, operators hope to test this new method three times. The first test will occur right after the two satellites separate. On the second test, operators will spin the target satellite to simulate docking with a piece of debris that is tumbling out of control. For the third test, the servicing satellite will “lose” the target and use both ground-based and onboard sensors to locate it again.Estes Destination Mars Colonizer Model Rocket Starter Set$69.99Estes Alpha III Rocket Launch Set$24.99Estes Tandem-X Flying Model Rocket Launch Set$39.73 (30% off)Estes 1413 Flying Model Rocket Launch Set Wacky Wiggler$49.99Estes LEPUSHPDJ123 Rockets 7246 Shuttle Model Rocket Kit$129.90Estes Sa-2061 Sasha Flying Model Rocket Kit$30.90Estes 1921 Mercury Redstone Flying Model Rocket Kit$30.70Estes 1948 Big Bertha Flying Model Rocket Kit$23.74Astroscale isn’t alone in its space sanitation efforts. The Surrey Space Centre at the University of Surrey’s RemoveDEBRIS project successfully deployed a debris-gobbling net in 2018 and a space junk harpoon in 2019. And the ESA is partnering with a Swiss company, ClearSpace SA, to launch the ClearSpace-1 mission in 2025; the spacecraft will capture a decommissioned satellite using a giant claw mechanism similar to the .Still, not all space junk is created equal, so a single removal method won’t work for all shapes and sizes. “If we have to build a bespoke capture capability or satellite for each [piece of debris], obviously, it’s going to be more expensive,” says Astroscale COO Chris Blackerby.➡️Must-Read Space FeaturesOf the debris, rocket stages pose the greatest threat, due to their immense size. They’re also often filled with unspent fuel and unstable batteries, and they generate more debris when they decay, collide or, in the case of that Japanese rocket stage, explode.“That would be the first thing to clean up,” explains Moriba Jah, Ph.D., an aerodynamicist at the University of Texas, Austin. “Get rid of the ticking time-bombs.”How do you move the 925,000-pound International Space Station? To boost it to a safer orbit, flight controllers based at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston may first fire up the attached cargo ship Progress’s eight thrusters. In the case of September’s evasive maneuver, those thrusters fired for 150 seconds. If the Russian supply ship isn’t docked to the station, controllers can power up the boosters aboard Russia’s Zvezda service module. To ensure the station remains stable during the orbit transfer, thrust is focused along its center of gravity. And though the ISS is moving at more than 17,000 miles per hour, the average change in velocity is less than 2 miles per hour.Eventually, Astroscale hopes to install a magnetic docking plate on every vehicle that makes it into orbit. This coordination could make it easier and cheaper to remove future scraps of space junk.Still, it’ll be several years before these programs can reliably capture and remove massive amounts of space junk. Jah insists that these flashy missions will be pointless if the world’s space agencies and commercial satellite operators don’t better coordinate efforts to track debris and mitigate collisions.“There are multiple participants making decisions in the absence of knowledge of the decisions that other people are making,” Jah says. “That’s a recipe for the tragedy of the commons if I’ve ever heard one.” Editor's Note: This story originally appears in the March/April 2021 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine.Advertisement - Continue Reading BelowAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below

Last September, a tiny piece of shrapnel from the body of a Japanese H-2A rocket hurtled toward the (ISS) and its crew at 17,500 miles per hour. An hour before the projected collision, flight controllers back on Earth powered up the spacecraft’s thrusters and moved it out of the way. That scrap of junk could have punched a hole in the hull of the ISS, and it was the station’s third close call in two weeks. Since the Soviet Union launched in 1957, we’ve sent more than 10,000 objects into orbit. As these spacecraft increasingly collide, break apart, or explode, they generate massive clouds of...

Risks of Space Debris Accident | How to Remove Space Junk

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