Space Sweepers? The Future Of Cleaning Space Debris

You can’t see them, but there are more than 9,000 tons, equivalent to the weight of 720 school buses, of space debris floating high above you.

That’s terrifying, and it certainly is. GPS, weather forecasting, and telecommunications face an enormous threat, with the debris able to damage or even destroy a satellite. However, a new debris-cleaning tech developed by Astroscale may solve that, with a demo mission launching on Saturday from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. A Soyuz 2 rocket launched a 175-kilogram spacecraft with a 17-kilogram dummy satellite, the “debris” attached into space. The spacecraft relies on a magnetic docking plate to latch onto the satellite, then throw it towards Earth’s atmosphere, where it’ll burn up. Astroscale hopes future satellites will all have this docking plate.

But that is about preventing further space debris. Other past debris could also get cleaned out using nets, robotic arms, harpoons, and stuff. But the biggest threat to our machines is the smallest, the ones not able to get detected. So it’s time to clean up space debris, and frankly, all debris, to make Earth a more happy and healthier place. That has been the New News Newsminute, thank you.