Hazardous space debris is being attempted to be cleaned up by a new European mission, prompting the use of a satellite to render it harmless, Press Trust of India reported.
The European Space Agency or ESA's ambitious mission called e.DeOrbit would use a satellite to net space debris and remove it from low Earth orbit.
Aiming to reduce the environmental impact of the space industry on Earth and space alike, the agency's Clean Space initiative is studying the e.DeOrbit mission for removing debris.
"Decades of launches have left Earth surrounded by a halo of space junk: more than 17,000 trackable objects larger than a coffee cup, which threaten working missions with catastrophic collision. Even a 1 cm nut could hit with the force of a hand grenade," ESA said.
The removal of large items such as derelict satellites and launcher upper stages ensures the only way to control the debris population across low key orbits.
"Such uncontrolled multi-ton items are not only collision risks but also time bombs: they risk exploding due to leftover fuel or partially charged batteries heated up by orbital sunlight, the agency said," according to PTI.
"The resulting debris clouds would make these vital orbits much more hazardous and expensive to use, and follow-on collisions may eventually trigger a chain reaction of break-ups."
"The e.DeOrbit is designed to target debris items in well-trafficked polar orbits, between 800 km to 1000 km altitude."
A giant, drifting object left in an uncertain state, which may well be tumbling rapidly, is the mission's first technical challenge to capture.
In order to assess its condition and then approach it, sophisticated imaging sensors and advanced autonomous control will be required.
As a way to minimize the risks of operation, several capture mechanisms are being studied. According to PTI, throw-nets have the advantage of scalability.
