Prior to 2010, only about 100 satellites were launched into Earth orbit each year. Then in 2020, for the first time, more than 1,000 satellites were sent into space. The number continues to increase in 2021, so far 1,400 new satellites have been placed in Earth’s orbit this year.
A report suggests that Earth’s orbit may have 100,000 satellites by 2030. Of course this poses a new threat related to the problem of space debris. However, banning space missions and launching new satellites is definitely not a solution. (Read also; Recognizing Outer Space Garbage and the Dangerous Threats It Poses )
Especially now that there are private companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin, which are very active in launching many satellites into space. These companies plan to launch mega-constellations (groups of satellites covering a large orbital area) in Earth orbit.
The goal is to provide wireless broadband internet services that reach millions of people around the world. Not to mention other satellites that function for communications, navigation, military assistance, earth observation, weather forecasting, mineral search, and many others. (Read also; China Launches Manned Space Mission, Builds Tianhe Space Station )
Cleaning Earth’s orbit of space debris is also an expensive and complicated process. For this reason, researchers and space agencies continue to think about and develop new methods to clean up space debris without reducing exploration into space.
Around 2012, quoted from the zmescience page, a group of researchers working at the EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) came up with the idea of a special satellite called CleanSpaceOne. This method is simple, which is to take pieces of space debris and drag them back to earth to be destroyed by the heat of the atmosphere.
This idea sounds promising, but it will also be expensive, and dropping the satellites one by one will certainly be very time consuming. In 2016, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency sent an electrodynamic tether in space that can direct space debris into Earth’s atmosphere using the planet’s magnetic field.
A few years later, the Surrey Space Center in the UK launched the RemoveDEBRIS project in April 2018. The project is focused on promoting and demonstrating various space waste disposal technologies. Under the RemoveDEBRIS initiative, the effectiveness of methods involving nets, spears and drag sails to capture space debris was tested.
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