The Orbit is full of defunct satellites and debris – a hazard to the infrastructure in space. A Swiss Start-Up has now received from the European space Agency ESA commissioned a waste-disposal Mission to develop.
A consortium headed by a Swiss Start-Ups called Clearspace has set itself in competition with the ESA and the contract for a waste-disposal Mission in the Orbit get. Clearspace is a Spin-Off from the ETH Lausanne (EPFL), dedicated to the removal of space debris.
ESA is procuringrawmaterial the first space mission to remove #space debris from orbit as part of its #space safety programs, from Swiss startup @clear space today . In 2025 mission ClearSpace-1 snag to the ESA-owned upper stage with its robotic arms to burn up both: https://t.co/hJVrabBLDP pic.twitter.com/zYSgGCy5LK
— ESA Technology (@ESA_Tech) want to December 9, 2019
The preparations for the Mission Clearspace-1 to start in March, the Start of the Mission is scheduled for 2025, as the ESA announced on Monday. The aim is, with a kind of “tow truck” for the orbit, a Remnant of the ESA to remove the carrier rocket Vega from Orbit. After its first flight in 2013, a rocket part remained, the so-called “Vespa” (Vega Secondary Payload Adapter) upper stage to an orbit of about 730 km height.
The Vespa has a mass of 100 kilograms, which is almost as big as a small satellite, and because of their simple shape, and robust design as the first target object, such as the ESA wrote. Thereafter, follow-up missions to go on the hunt for more challenging objects.
Four robot arms to waste-catch
The so-called “Chaser” by Clearspace – the “tow truck” – has four robotic arms, with which the rocket part, and used captured want to fix it then the Chaser. Chaser and Vespa will then burn up in the atmosphere.
“Now is the right time for such a Mission,” was Luc Piguet, founder and CEO of the Start-Ups in the message quote. “The issue of space debris is more urgent than ever. Currently, almost 2,000 active and 3,000 inactive satellites in space are.”
The number of satellites is expected to rise in the next few years as several projects with formations of hundreds to Thousands of satellites have been launched for telecommunications and surveillance services, among others, from companies such as SpaceX and Oneweb. It is all the more important to remove the faulty satellite from the high-traffic low earth orbit, so Piguet.
more and more debris
But even without further satellite launches, the Problem of collisions between objects is exacerbated generate new debris, which can collide, and even more debris fabricate a cascade effect, said Luisa Innocenti, head of ESA’s Initiative “Clean Space”. “We need to develop technologies to avoid the creation of new debris and to remove the existing residues.”
The ESA wants to put, therefore, your developments to guidance, navigation and control technology, as well as rendezvous and grapple methodology for the removal of space junk and a new project named Adrios (Active Debris Removal/ In-Orbit Servicing) bundle. The results of wool transferred to Clearspace-1. (Dec/sda)
Created: 09.12.2019, 13:39 PM
