Astroscale Makes Various Efforts To Get Rid Of Debits From Orbit

One of Astroscale's technologies, ELSA-M on the ELSA-d mission, is to tackle debris in orbit (photo: dock. Astroscale)

Astroscale, a debris transfer company in space, is thinking of the best mission to remove debris from Earth's orbit. So far, Astroscale plans to pull debris into Earth until debris catches fire in the atmosphere.

This plan is being developed and tested by the Japanese company. They have demonstrated the arrest and release of debris in 2021 on the mission of ELSA-d.

In the scenario they designed, the magnet from ELSA-d will lock up debris floating in space and drag this debris into the deorbit so that later this debris will catch fire in the atmoster.

In addition, Astroscale will also launch ADRAS-J, a partnered aircraft with the Japan Space Agency (JAXA). The aircraft will be used to approach and examine targets before being moved in the future.

In a different mission, Astroscale is also focused on the Space Cleaning mission through Innovative Arrest (COSMIC). The mission will use robotic arms to retrieve debris in orbit.

These various plans and missions are expected to be successful in order to reduce the number of objects in orbit. The reason is, the orbit of the earth is getting denser with thousands of objects that surround it.

In the latest news, the US Department of Defense's Space Surveillance said that more than 25,000 objects were in orbit, mostly in low Earth Orbit (LEO). This object includes dead satellites, aircraft fragments, to small debris-like objects.