Delimited
A Japanese spaceship has date with a three-ton piece of rocket debris in a risky flight BBC reports to find out whether it is possible to remove the increasing amount of space debris floating around our planet.
A satellite developed by Astroscale Japan Inc. tracked down the 15-year-old rocket segment and took a photo of the floating 36-by-15-foot chunk of space debris, they said BBC.
The Astroscale satellite was launched in February this year and used onboard cameras and precise calculations to approach the rocket’s debris to carry out this delicate maneuver and avoid jarring the abandoned rocket, which rotates slowly as it orbits the Earth.
The purpose of this particular mission is to take photos of the rocket debris, make detailed records of its condition, and test the satellite’s ability to approach it. Future operations will require Astroscale to launch another satellite with robotic arms to bring this space debris under control and safely “remove,” according to a statement from the company.
Great dangers
The floating space debris in question came from a Japanese rocket that launched an environmental exploration satellite in 2009 BBC Reports.
A broken satellite isn’t a big deal, but large space debris is becoming a bigger problem for private companies and governments because today’s civilization relies so heavily on orbiting satellites for advanced communications and other important tasks. And yet, according to NASA, there are already tens of thousands of pieces of space debris larger than 10 centimeters floating around Earth – and a shocking 500,000 pieces measuring between one and ten centimeters in diameter.
In total, the space agency says there will be more than 9,000 tons of space debris floating around our planet in 2022. There’s a trash heap up there.
The obvious problem with all this space junk is that collisions can occur, potentially disrupting communications on our planet or even the safety of the astronauts above.
A particularly epic collision could even trigger a chain reaction called Kessler syndrome, damaging many satellites and rendering large swathes of the sky impassable to future space missions and satellite communications.
Needless to say, that would be really bad – so we understand why Astroscale is working hard on a solution.
More on the subject of space debris: Startup builds giant laser to shoot space junk from the ground