With hundreds of space missions that we humans have sent out, the amount of debris is certainly pretty high. Today, the European Space Agency signed a contract with a team led by a Swiss start-up that will bring in millions of dollars.
This could very well be the first space mission to remove debris from orbit and set a precedent in the future market for commercial space debris disposal. The proposed spacecraft has four robotic tentacles.
Cleaning up space trash isn’t an easy task because you can’t just vacuum or sweep it under a carpet. Space agencies have been trying to deal with this threat, and NASA has been studying it since the 1970s. But the company Free spaceThe contract with ESA may be the first space mission to remove a piece of debris from orbit. It could be an important development for the disposal of space waste if the mission is successful.
The ClearSpace-1 is a 500 kilogram spacecraft equipped with four robotic tentacles that will be launched in 2025.
This ambitious mission is funded by ESA and supported by companies from several European countries, including Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden, Poland, United Kingdom, Portugal and Romania.
The ClearSpace project was the winning pitch after ESA called for expert submissions in 2019 to come up with a space debris disposal solution.
The ClearSpace-1 will focus on capturing the top of an ESA vessel called VESPA (Vega Secondary Payload Adapter), a 112 kilogram object the size of a small satellite launched in 2013.
It was eventually abandoned on a gradual retreat path at an altitude of about 800 kilometers by 660 kilometers.
Scientists are talking about space debris and the serious problem it has posed for decades.
It all started 60 years ago during the Space Race, and over 5,550 rocket launches from Earth have left around 23,000 tracked objects in space.
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