A space probe has cautiously approached a large chunk of metal orbiting Earth and captured an image of it, a step toward addressing humanity’s growing problems with space debris.
In Japanese satellite technology company Astroscale’s delicate space mission, the ADRAS-J satellite flew within several hundred meters of an abandoned section of a non-communicating, abandoned rocket, proving it could safely observe at such close proximity.
“Pictures or it didn’t happen,” the company posted on X (formerly Twitter). “Behold, the world’s first image of space debris captured through rendezvous and proximity operations during our ADRAS-J mission.”
NASA scientists looked at first Voyager images. What he saw gave him goosebumps.
The mission is part of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA, the Japanese equivalent of NASA) Commercial Removal of Debris Demonstration project, which is looking for a proven way to remove problematic space debris from Earth’s orbit. A collision with a large object can create thousands more pieces of debris, creating a domino effect of future impacts.
The experimental spacecraft will now move closer to the rocket launched by Japan in 2009 and collect more data about the rocket’s condition and movement. The following mission will use this information “then remove and deorbit the rocket body using in-house robotic arm technologies,” the company said in a statement.
“We chose this target because it is a large piece of space junk and there are many similarly shaped (cylindrical) pieces on it.” [space debris] “List,” Yamamoto Toru, who leads Japan’s commercial disposal mission, said in a statement. “If we are successful, we expect to be able to apply these techniques to clean up similarly shaped space debris.”
Destructible speed of light
The tweet may have been deleted
A rendering of the ADRAS-J spacecraft approaching its large space debris target.
Photo credit: Astroscale
Space debris is a serious problem. The unregulated orbital debris now permeates a region of space around Earth called Low Earth Orbit, or LEO.
“LEO is an orbital space junkyard,” NASA said. “There are millions of pieces of space junk flying in LEO. Most orbital debris consists of human-made objects, such as pieces of spacecraft, tiny specks of paint from spacecraft, parts of rockets, satellites that no longer function, or explosions of orbiting objects traveling around space at high speeds .
Unintentional collisions may occur. But deliberate actions have dramatically affected the LEO environment. “For example, the deliberate destruction of China’s Fengyun-1C spacecraft in 2007 and the accidental collision of an American and Russian spacecraft in 2009 alone increased the large orbital debris population in LEO by approximately 70 percent, resulting in a greater collision risk for “Operates in low Earth orbit,” NASA noted.
The International Space Station had to perform several maneuvers to avoid collisions caused by fast-moving debris.
Recently, Russia fired a rocket at its 4,850-pound Cosmos 1408 satellite during a troubled test in 2021, creating a cloud of fragments that triggered an emergency response on the relatively nearby space station.
“We will see the consequences of this special event for decades to come,” Hugh Lewis, a professor of astronautics at the University of Southampton who studies space debris, told Mashable at the time. “It wasn’t a good result. It was never going to be a good outcome.”
“Out of respect for human spaceflight, there was no worse target than a target,” he added.