ESA mission will be the first to remove space debris - Earth.com

ESA mission will be the first to remove space debris

06-08-2020


ESA mission will be the first to remove space debris Today’s Video of the Day from the European Space Agency describes the mounting issue of space debris and the tools that we have available to address the problem. 

Systems engineer Sara Morales Serrano of ESA’s Clean Space office explains that out of the 5,000 satellites that are in space, 3,000 are no longer functional. 

Old satellites, combined with thousands of other large pieces of space debris in Earth’s orbit, will only continue to accumulate until technologies are designed for their removal.

Planned to launch in 2025, the ESA mission ClearSpace-1 will be the first to remove debris from orbit.

“Imagine how dangerous sailing the high seas would be if all the ships ever lost in history were still drifting on top of the water,” said ESA Director General Jan Wörner. ESA mission will be the first to remove space debris as shown above.

“That is the current situation in orbit, and it cannot be allowed to continue. ESA’s Member States have given their strong support to this new mission. Also points the way forward to essential new commercial services. Therefore in the future.” The European Space Agency (ESA) announced they have plans to launch a space debris removal.

Therefore the mission would happen in 2025 with the help of a Swiss start-up called ClearSpace. The mission, dubbed ClearSpace-1. Also They will use an experimental, four-armed robot to capture a Vega Secondary Payload Adapter.

By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer

Video Credit: ESA

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