The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced that it has signed an 86 million euro agreement with the Swiss start-up ClearSpace. Objective:to deorbit space waste in order to burn it in the atmosphere.
Imagine how dangerous sailing on the high seas would be if every craft ever lost in history was still adrift on the water. This is the current situation in Earth orbit. The ESA estimates that more than 34,000 the number of man-made space debris greater than ten centimeters above our heads. These objects, which spin through space at several thousand km/h, then constitute a real threat to the active satellites and other occupants of the ISS. In the past year alone, the International Space Station had to use its thrusters to dodge a piece of debris three times.
And it's not over. In the years to come, the number of satellites will indeed increase as the various mega-constellations made up of hundreds, even thousands of satellites, will position themselves in low Earth orbit.
These waste issues, the European Space Agency (ESA) takes them very seriously. With that in mind, last year it asked several companies to come up with a solution to get rid of that debris. On a panel of more than a dozen candidates, the agency set its sights on ClearSpace, founded by members of the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, ultimately awarding it a contract worth 86 million euros .
By 2025, the Swiss start-up will launch its first active debris clearance mission, dubbed ClearSpace-1 , which will aim to capture and recover a payload of approximately 112 kilograms left in low earth orbit following the second launch of Europe's Vega rocket in 2013. The idea will be to grab hold of this piece of junk with robotic arms, then drag it back into the atmosphere where it will be burned.
“Now is the right time for such a mission. The issue of space debris is more urgent than ever. Today we have nearly 2,000 active satellites in space and more than 3,000 down. , said Luc Piguet, founder and CEO of ClearSpace.
Naturally, 86 million euros seems like a huge sum to spend to eliminate a single element, but the ESA sees it as an investment. The technology required for the ClearSpace-1 mission, if successful, will indeed be used in future similar missions. Eventually, the European agency hopes to launch “a new commercial sector in space” .
Note that this space debris issue is also taken seriously by other actors. In particular, we know that China is considering using lasers, while SpaceX is proposing to rely on its Starship vessels to deorbit certain dead rocket bodies between two missions to the Moon or to Mars.
