*Space Claw
The European Space Agency intends to launch a huge claw that will grab big space debris out of the sky and direct it toward the Earth’s atmosphere so it may be burned up.
The agency recently agreed to a $103 million deal with a Swiss startup company named ClearSpace SA to deploy the initial iteration of the system, which will, according to the scientists behind the project, be a first-of-its-kind in the globe.
RELATED: European Space Agency is sending a giant claw into orbit to clean up space junk
The Claw is our master. The Claw chooses who will go and who will stay.
*Whirling Death
The mission of ClearSpace SA is to make a modest dent in our orbit’s growing clutter, which could be exacerbated by collisions that produce additional space debris and increase the hazard of orbit.
The firm intends to launch ClearSpace-1, its first mission, in 2025. It will attempt to de-orbit a retired Vespa payload adapter—a rocket component created by the ESA to place payloads into various orbits—and claw it for destruction.
RELATED: SPACE COMPANY WANTS TO TURN ORBITAL JUNK INTO SPACE STATIONS
Even as SpaceX works to make reusable rockets the norm, space launches still leave chunks of garbage in orbit.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/space-company-turn-orbital-junk-space-stations
*Cleaning Up
The 250-pound spent rocket component was abandoned in 2013 at an altitude of about 800 kilometers, which is regarded as being inside the boundaries of the “graveyard orbit” where decommissioned satellite parts are currently discarded.
There are more methods of reducing space debris than the claw. The announcement follows the successful docking of a Northrop Grumman-built spacecraft to an orbiting satellite in February. By refueling or modernizing their technology, the contractor intends to someday prolong the life of decommissioned satellites discovered in graveyard orbits.
REFERENCES:
- https://futurism.com/the-byte/european-space-agency-claw-space-junk
- https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/317863-the-esa-funds-giant-claw-to-clean-up-space-junk
by: Miss Cherry May Timbol – Independent Reporter
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