Japan’s space start-up Astroscale announced on Tuesday that the world’s first commercial space debris removal satellite has been launched into orbit.
End-to-life services by the Astroscale Display (ELSA-d) will serve as evidence of the idea for space-cleaning missions to reduce the amount of dangerous space junk filled into satellites, Earth orbits. The Astroscale craft will detect and magnetically connect broken and falling satellites, monitor them and remove debris from orbit in future operations. According to Astroscale, the satellite cleaner will be able to dock with both static and debris debris. If the demonstration is successful, the techniques in ELSA-d could soon be used to clear the back yard of the earth.
“At this stage our journey has been long, challenging and rewarding – now it is embarking on a trailblazing journey for ELSA-d itself,” said Nobu Okada, Astroscale founder and CEO. “This ship ushers in a new era of space stability, and it was a powerful moment to see our Tokyo headquarters leave ELSA-d.”
The ELSA-d was launched on Monday on a Soyuz 2.1A rocket from Kazakhstan by GK Launch Services with 37 other payloads. Astroscale has confirmed on Twitter the successful launch into orbit, relocation to mission operations in the UK and the deployment of its solar array. Every step of the operation is a mechanical test of the satellite, and even one failure can lead to destruction for the mission. The Israelis remember the Bereshit probe, and how each step with its goal was monitored with a bored breath before it failed the final approach to the moon.
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According to a representative of Astroscale, it has attempted a proud mission since its founding in 2013, but has not been able to enter orbit due to the failure of its launch service rocket. This is the first successful launch they have made, and represents a major step towards meeting the space start-up’s mission statement “to secure the safe and sustainable development of space for the benefit of future generations.”
Space debris has become a growing problem as the Earth’s orbit becomes more crowded. According to the Union Concerned Scientists Satellite Database, there are 3,372૨ functional satellites in orbit, and according to NASA, there are thousands of trackable fragments, including booster placed on boo, distended satellites and fragments detached from ships.
Extra terrestrial junk is a threat to thousands of working satellites and powered space missions. While the craft is protected against impacts, debris can still cause significant damage. In 2009, the first major satellite collision between the Defunct Russian Satellite and the Operational US Satellite destroyed both objects.
As the number of satellites and junk increases, so does the likelihood of collisions, according to an article by NASA’s Donald Kessler. Further, collisions can have a cascading effect where they result in a wide range of collisions, known as the “castle effect”. Will eventually result in the formation of an artificial asteroid belt. GPS in the mass destruction of satellites. And other spacecraft will have a devastating effect on the planet based on modern conveniences.
Astroscale and other space start-ups strive to prevent the creation of impenetrable and unsafe space environments.
