"Overall, the ELSA-d mission is very complex, and these kinds of captures have never been attempted before," Okada said, "but we hope these technical demonstrations will show commercial and government customers that we have the technical capabilities to provide this service." "Building out the robotic arm for capture capability was extremely difficult," he added.
"On the technological challenges, building a satellite, let alone one that can rendezvous, dock and then safely remove a defunct satellite from orbit is already a significant technical challenge in itself," he said. "There are three key challenges to solving the space debris issue: developing the technology, informing the international and domestic policies, and identifying a business case," Okada said. The servicer satellite is subsequently directed to descend with its cargo until it burns up in the atmosphere. In a simulation of the servicer satellite in operation, it will repeatedly dock with and release the client vehicle, demonstrating the ability to locate an item of debris, to inspect that item and then recover it. The client satellite is a replica of typical space debris with a ferromagnetic plate that enables the docking to take place. The servicer vehicle is equipped with proximity rendezvous technologies and a magnetic docking mechanism and is designed to remove defunct satellites and other large pieces of debris from orbit. How does the clean up work?ĮLSA-d is made of two satellites that have been stacked atop each other, a 175-kilogram (385-pound) servicer satellite and a client satellite that weighs 17 kilograms.
It is the first commercial mission "to prove the core technologies necessary for space debris," Okada said. On March 22, Astroscale launched its End-of-Life Services by Astroscale (ELSA-d) demonstration craft on a Soyuz rocket that took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Environmental protection on Earth cannot exist without orbital protection in space," he added.
"Satellites are the reason why we are able to measure, monitor and manage climate change, and they enable us to predict the future of the Earth. "Some might argue that we have enough problems here on Earth, like climate change and all the other environmental issues, but it is because of satellite services that we are able to understand the health of our planet," Okada told DW. "I believe the space debris issue is one of the most pressing and important issues in the world today," said Nobu Okada, the founder and CEO of Japan's Astroscale, which was set up in 2013 and now has operations in the UK, the United States, Israel and Singapore. Fragments of man-made debris are currently orbiting the Earth at speeds of up to 8 kilometers (5 miles) per second, posing a serious hazard to satellites and even manned spacecraft, such as the International Space Station.Īnd, with more nations launching satellites and some looking to explore further into outer space, the amount of junk in circulation is only going to increase.Īt least four Japanese companies see that as a business opportunity and are developing solutions that should make space travel safer in the future.