NASA hasdeployeda UK - led satellite from the International Space Station ( ISS ) that will try out a newfangled method to remove space debris from orbit .
CalledRemoveDebris , the $ 17 - million satellite was launched from the place with the help of the CanadaArm machinelike arm . It count 100 kg ( 220 pounds ) , making it the large satellite every deploy from the ISS , and has a net and a harpoon on add-in . It was launched to the ISS on a Falcon 9 Eruca vesicaria sativa in April .
For the next month or so , ground controllers at the Surrey Space Centre in Guildford will monitor the orbiter , and check out it is in working gild . Then , they will start to behave experiments .
“ RemoveDEBRIS is demonstrating some exceedingly exciting fighting debris remotion technologies that could have a major shock to how we finagle space debris move forward , ” Conor Brown , External Payloads Manager for Nanoracks , who deployed the orbiter , said in astatement .
RemoveDebris wo n’t be try out to snag survive junk , but instead has two small “ cubesats ” on board that it will release and track . According to theBBC , it will monitor one of those with laser ranging and tv camera engineering science to practice identifying debris . It will also deploy a target on the end of an sleeve , and attempt to fire a harpoon at it to see if it can attach . For the other cubesat , it will attempt tocapture it with a net .
To do this , the cubesat will inflate a balloon , take it a larger quarry area . Then , the satellite will send away a net at the balloon . Once it attain , weights at the conclusion of the net will wind around , with motor driven winches tightening the neck .
At the end of the mission RemoveDebris will deploy its own sail , to increase its atmospheric retarding force . This should add it back into the atmosphere , where it will burn up , another potential method acting for removing dust from range .
The finish of these tests is to notice out if one or both of these method might be useful for de - orbiting rubble . quad detritus is a turn job , with thousands of pieces of defunct or active satellites remaining in orbit .
Some of these can pose a danger to other orbiter , but we ordinarily just have to wait for them to be sweep up into the atmosphere for them to be removed . Being able to actively dispatch debris would be a huge welfare . Other ideas have includedusing lasersto attempt and push satellites into a lower orbit .
