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<ul><li>The <keyword id="59844" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="European-Space-Agency">European Space Agency</keyword> plans to use a four-armed robot to drag <keyword id="943402" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Space-Debris">space debris</keyword> back to Earth. </li><li>The robot will launch into space, wrap itself around the target, and fall back to Earth in a controlled descent. </li><li>The robot called Chaser has been developed by a Swiss start-up called <keyword id="8428979" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="clearspace">ClearSpace</keyword>. </li></ul>The European Space Agency (ESA) has a plan to clean up Earth's orbit — one satellite at a time. A four-armed robot — the Chaser — will launch into space and drag space debris back to Earth in a blaze of glory. The robot, developed by a Swiss startup called <a href="https://clearspace.today/">ClearSpace</a>, will first be tested in Earth's lower 500-kilometre orbit and by 2025, ESA plans to start delegating official targets — the first of which will be Vespa, the secondary payload adapter of ESA's Vega launch in 2013. It's not an actually a satellite but it's around the same size and shape — ideal for ESA's ClearSpace Mission-1. Chaser, once launched into space, will wrap itself around the chosen piece of space trash and fall back towards Earth in a controlled, but fiery, descent. <div type="image" title="Artist impression, ClearSpace-1 with captured Vespa" msid="72470057" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Artist impression, ClearSpace-1 with captured Vespa&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>

 The objective is to actively participate in cleaning up space, while also <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/us-russia-china-and-india-standoff-over-space-debris-after-a-sat-test/articleshow/70837355.cms">setting an example</a> of the kind of technology that's needed to do so, according to the <a href="https://www.esa.int/Newsroom/Press_Releases/ESA_commissions_world_s_first_space_debris_removal">agency</a>. "NASA and ESA studies show that the only way to stabilise the orbital environment is to actively remove large debris items… This new mission, implemented by an ESA project team, will allow us to demonstrate these technologies, achieving a world first in the process," said <a href="https://www.esa.int/Newsroom/Press_Releases/ESA_commissions_world_s_first_space_debris_removal">Luisa Innocenti</a>, head of ESA's Clean Space initiative. The growing threat of space debris Earth's immediate orbit is already home to around 20,000 objects — and it's only going to get <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/the-trash-in-outer-space-makes-way-for-a-new-kind-of-map/articleshow/69751105.cms">more crowded</a>. Governments are sending up an increasing amount of radar technology in the name of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/isro-risat-2br1-spy-satellite-surveillance-along-borders/articleshow/72454280.cms">self-defence</a>. SpaceX launching <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/elon-musks-spacex-wants-to-launch-30000-satellites-and-researchers-are-worried/articleshow/71627121.cms">thousands of satellites</a> to deliver global access to the internet. "In the coming years the number of satellites will increase by an order of magnitude, with multiple mega-constellations made up of hundreds or even thousands of satellites planned for low Earth orbit to deliver wide-coverage, low-latency telecommunications and monitoring services," said <a href="https://www.esa.int/Newsroom/Press_Releases/ESA_commissions_world_s_first_space_debris_removal">Luc Piget</a>, founder and CEO of ClearSpace. <div type="image" title="spacedebris" msid="72470071" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Animation of space debris around Earth&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>

 The market for satellite space launches is set to hit $30 billion by 2026, according to <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/space-launch-services-market-to-reach-30-01-bn-globally-by-2026-at-17-2-cagr-allied-market-research-300934694.html">Allied Market Research</a>. It's growing at an average annual rate of 17.2%. More countries are coming into the space exploration fold and companies are looking to be self-dependent while expanding the range of services that they can provide. "Even if all space launches were halted tomorrow, projections show that the overall orbital debris population will continue to grow, as collisions between items generate fresh debris in a cascade effect," said Innocenti. The threat that already exists Nevermind the risk of these objects accidentally colliding with each other, there's already a ton of junk <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/new-grading-system-for-satellite-launches/articleshow/69230966.cms">lying in wait</a>. Earth's Lower Earth Orbit (LEO) is home to more than 3,000 defunct satellites and millions of smaller pieces of debris. To make matters worse, all of these pieces are flying around at thousands of kilometres per hour. "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. According to Piuget, what Earth needs is an outer space ‘tow truck' to remove the trash from Earth's largest garbage dump. <div type="Youtube" id="-LL1MBpTN4w" title="Distribution of space debris in orbit around Earth" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-LL1MBpTN4w/mqdefault.jpg"></div>

 See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/isro-to-set-up-own-space-debris-agency-because-norad-data-inaccurate/articleshow/70550082.cms">India doesn't trust US with measuring space debris — and so it will set up its own agency</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/the-trash-in-outer-space-makes-way-for-a-new-kind-of-map/articleshow/69751105.cms">The trash in outer space makes way for a new kind of map</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/new-grading-system-for-satellite-launches/articleshow/69230966.cms">A new space debris grading system could keep countries from cluttering up outer space</a>

Europe wants to use a suicidal robot to clean up space — one satellite at a time

You and I are probably spending too much time on our phones. But how much time is too much? Ever since Apple rolled out the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/best-iphone">iPhone's</a> screen-time tracking feature in 2018, we've been shocked and ashamed to see how many minutes and hours we spend basking in the screen's LED glow. But that number doesn't tell me if my four hours a day (which sounds like a lot) is a heroic feat of restraint and time well spent or a sign that I'm scrolling life away.That's how I ended up trying out Clearspace, one of several apps designed to help people take control of their screen time, and perhaps the most brazen of them. Clearspace, backed by <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/y-combinator-making-first-weapons-industry-bet-on-missile-startup-2024-8">Y Combinator</a>, not only lets you restrict how many times you open an app each day but is testing a new feature that lets you see how much time your friends are spending on their phones. Screen-time creeping has entered the chat.When you sign up, you can opt to give yourself a set number of times you're allowed to open certain apps in a day. For example, I let myself open <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-tiktok-ban-marketers-employees-creators-are-not-worried-2024-9">TikTok</a> six times (probably a generously low guess on the number of times I was clicking the app daily) and gave myself three times to open <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-new-ray-ban-smart-glasses-apple-vision-pro-2024-9">Facebook</a>, home of my favorite serotonin-boosting activity: mindlessly scrolling Facebook Marketplace for cheap home goods. While I'd prefer to open Slack and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gmail-update-fix-email-tabbed-inbox-2024-5">Gmail</a> less often than I do, I'd also prefer to keep my job. Each time I wanted to browse secondhand shoe racks, before I could open Facebook, Clearspace prompted me to take a deep breath and read an inspirational-poster quote — like "However little television you watch, watch less," credited to the historian David McCullough, and "Wonder is the very engine of life," from the explorer Erling Kagge. Then I could select how long I'd like to stay in the app (10 minutes at most) before I'd be kicked out. For TikTok, that was a helpful nudge back into the real world. For The New York Times' games app, it filled me with ire; I can't do a Sunday crossword in 10-minute increments. Off the restricted list it went.My friends weren't exactly thrilled to join my experiment. One downloaded it, restricted TikTok, and then texted me: "I'm currently scrolling on TikTok and plan to all day. It better not stop me." When the app ultimately did, I could see that she deleted TikTok from her restricted apps, added Duolingo, and clocked nine hours of screen time that day and 10 the next, an amount that both stunned and impressed me, given she has a full-time office job. (When confronted, she blamed the high screen time on her Kindle app and podcasts.) It doesn't appear she ever opened Duolingo, so I won't expect to see any sudden improvements in her Spanish anytime soon.Royce Branning, a cofounder of Clearspace, says the company started testing the friends feature after hearing that users were taking screenshots of their Clearspace screen tracking and sharing it with one another. That can open up conversation, as it did when I asked my friend how she spent 10 hours on her phone in day. Branning says that building the feature into the app is a way to "arm people's little community with the ability to encourage each other," or compete. Branning says he and his cofounder use it to keep each other accountable, but there's a sense of friendly competition. Still, they don't think the goal is to get screen time down to the lowest possible levels. "We don't think screen time is inherently bad," Branning says. "We want to reduce regrettable usage." I'm not sure where my friends spent all their screen time, but being on a phone doesn't inherently ruin your life. Sharing memes is how I bond with my friends. Procuring the perfect used plant stand from Facebook Marketplace requires constant vigilance, and when I finally see that trendy item I've been looking for marked down to $20, it's a cosmic thrill. And I'm sure that breaking news about the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-city-mayor-eric-adams-charges-indicted-2024-9">indictment of New York City Mayor Eric "Trash Revolution" Adams</a> led my screen time and X usage to skyrocket.Dr. Jason Nagata, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, says one of the big problems with staying surgically attached to your phone is that the screen is often replacing something else in your life. If you're scrolling Instagram and TikTok for hours instead of exercising or meeting up with friends, you may be swapping healthy activities with sedentary and anxiety-inducing ones.Most research about the negative effects of screen time focuses on children rather than adults. While kids are using screens increasingly often to learn, excessively staring at them has been linked to anxiety, depression, and lower cognitive abilities. For adolescents, social-media use can contribute to insecurities, body-image issues, and eating disorders.Still, the amount of screen time even children should be allotted has gotten murkier. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommended limiting screen time to two hours a day, but in 2016 it did away with the hard line, instead guiding caregivers to focus on "mindful use" of screens. Experts don't really know how much screen time is too much — and that makes the minutes and hours ticking up on screen-time apps harder to decipher.Screen-time apps like Clearspace, OffScreen, AppBlock, and slew of others designed for parents to set limits for their children might be useful, but they can't on their own be a fix for excessive scrolling. Nagata says there has to be "some sort of buy-in" and desire to reduce screen time. "This is just a tool to limit your use," he added. My friends lacked the willpower, and the openness, to fully buy in. One immediately refused to download it, saying that the results would make her feel too guilty and that she doesn't look at her screen time. Another said she planned to delete it as soon as the trial for new features expired (after which Clearspace charges $50 a year for its premium version) and found the app-opening limits annoying. And I don't think my first friend paid much attention to my screen time — she was clearly busy doing other things with her phone for nine hours.Branning tells me he imagined people would share their screen-time totals with very close friends — the same people they share their location with. His hunch was right: I already share my location with the friends I had try the app, and I find myself checking to see where they are from time to time, even though we live in different cities. Watching their screen time tick up gives me another glimpse into what they're doing when we're apart, and it's a further breakdown of their private actions that I really don't need. Maybe my friend who didn't want to join us was onto something about keeping her scrolling a secret.It was less the peer pressure and the more the irritation of waiting for the app to open (and being reminded that there are other things I could do with my time) that got me to spend less time scrolling. The icons of the apps I chose to limit were shaded on my screen, deterring me from clicking and undergoing another breathing exercise before opening them. I stuck to my limits every day — even clocking in below them. And after the first day, I did find myself less inclined to spend time on TikTok than before, but I watched more Instagram reels, which are just less-funny TikToks or videos I already saw on TikTok last month.Maybe logging in to an app like Clearspace with friends, family, and romantic partners could help people police each other. Perhaps you'd think twice before opening TikTok for the 18th time on a Wednesday knowing that judgmental eyes could be lurking. As for me, I'm not going to pay too much attention to the number of times I pick up my phone or how long I'm on TikTok. And I'll definitely be going back to doomscrolling in private. Ultimately, we may want to prioritize limiting how much we know about each other than limiting our screen time. Knowing less about everyone's business leaves more room to wonder, which is, after all, the very engine of life.<a target="_blank" rel="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/amanda-hoover">Amanda Hoover</a> is a senior correspondent at Business Insider covering the tech industry. She writes about the biggest tech companies and trends.

I monitored my friends' phones. What I saw horrified me.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NASA awarded TransAstra an $850,000 contract for its concept of Flytrap capture bags.</li><li>Flytrap bags could be built large enough to scoop up space trash the size of a house.</li></ul>In the middle of a space flight, an astronaut heard a massive bang. He looked up and saw a piece of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-satellite-breaks-up-orbit-space-debris-could-last-century-2023-2">space junk</a> embedded in the window of the shuttle.If the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/falling-space-junk-spacex-nasa-china-foreshadow-increasing-injury-risk-2022-8">debris had been bigger</a>, it could have blown out the window, and the crew would have all died, the astronaut told Joel C. Sercel, the founder and CEO of TransAstra."Space junk is one of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-unknown-orbital-debris-narrowly-missed-striking-iss-avoidance-maneuver-2020-9">greatest perils that astronauts face</a> in low Earth orbit today," Sercel told Insider. TransAstra was recently awarded an <a href="https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/45699/20230830/nasa-awards-transastra-850-000-clean-space-junk-capture-bags.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$850,000 contract</a> from NASA to explore the possibility of cleaning up space junk with a giant "capture bag" that the company has dubbed Flytrap, Sercel said.<div type="image" title="Illustration of a capture bag that could pick up trash in space." height="1688" width="3000" msid="103887482" hostid="261" sizebytes="115344"></div>"It's kind of like picking up trash on the side of the highway," Sercel said.Only much, much more complex and expensive.<h2>Earth's backyard is a giant dumpster</h2>As humans expand into space, we're <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/space-debris-junk-dangerous-nasa-esa-2017-4">leaving a big mess</a>.The European Space Agency estimates over 330 million pieces of space debris are circling the Earth. Space debris can reach speeds up to 17,500 mph and pose a risk to astronauts, shuttles, and satellites.<div type="image" title="Space debris collided with this spacecraft leaving this hole." height="255" width="340" msid="103887483" hostid="261" sizebytes="18356"></div>TransAstra's Flytrap bags were initially developed to capture asteroids that, in the future, could be <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-mining-company-earth-startups-raw-materials-cobalt-gold-platinum-2021-3">mined for rare elements</a>, Sercel said.But the more Sercel and the team looked into asteroid mining, the more they "became aware of the space junk problem, and we thought this is a really good solution for cleaning up orbital debris," Sercel told Insider.<h2>Giant capture bags to clean up the mess</h2>TransAstra's plan is to use bags attached to small spacecraft that can fly alongside the space junk in low Earth orbit. <div type="image" title="Illustration of a giant yellow capture bag from TransAstra." height="928" width="1242" msid="103887484" hostid="261" sizebytes="28744"></div>Once in position, the craft deploys the bag and encloses the space junk, zippering it in, Sercel said.To prevent the bags from tearing, TransAstra is testing bags made from Kevlar and other strong <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/space-elevator-on-earth-moon-2019-9">materials proven in space</a>.While there are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-ula-launch-rogue-space-robots-orbit-debris-satellites-2022-8">other proposed means of collecting space junk</a>, they're often only effective on certain items, Sercel said, like debris that is magnetic or can be grasped by a robotic arm.The capture bags, on the other hand, can pick up anything that fits inside them.<div type="image" title="Photo of one of TransAstra's prototype capture bags." height="2500" width="1835" msid="103887486" hostid="261" sizebytes="326118"></div>"We can build a Flytrap that could fit in a coffee cup and capture things the size of a watermelon, and we can build a big Flytrap that can capture items the size of a house that weigh 1,000 tons," Sercel said.<h2>The biggest challenges</h2>This approach to capturing space junk is "absolutely valid," Dave Barnhart, research professor in the Department of Astronautical Engineering at the University of South Carolina, told Insider.TransAstra aren't the only ones with this concept.The European Space Agency is planning an endeavor, called ClearSpace-1, which plans to use a similar approach to capture debris, Barnhart said.Clearspace-1 is slated to launch in 2026. Similarly, Sercel said Flytrap technology could be used in space within two years.The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-rocket-cargo-price-by-weight-2016-6">biggest challenge is fuel cost</a>, according to Barnhart, who is also CEO of Arkisys Inc, a company that plans to build ports and outposts in space."To use one spacecraft with one bag to go grab a whole bunch of stuff is a good idea, but it requires a huge amount of fuel," Barnhart said.Even debris items that are relatively close together are spread over tremendously vast expanses, he added.So far, TransAstra has developed patent-pending prototypes and worked with a government entrepreneurial program, NASA SBIR Ignite, to prove the concept.This year, it'll be building a full-sized prototype to fulfill the NASA contract, Sercel said."No one doubts the scientific feasibility," Sercel added. "It's the engineering feasibility of doing it affordably that has to be proven."<h2>How to make it affordable</h2>Ultimately, one way to offset costs could be to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kids-want-to-clean-up-space-junk-orbiting-earth-with-the-hubble-2016-6">recycle the captured space trash</a> to help build satellites and other objects in orbit."People paid lots of money to get it into orbit in the first place," Sercel said. "Anything in space is by definition worth a lot. If you can <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reusable-rockets-musk-bezos-space-colonies-2017-3">repurpose it</a>, that's a win for everyone."Barnhart, whose company aims to build space outposts, said recycling in space could be a reality within five to 10 years."Every single piece of the puzzle is there, but it's got to be created," he said. As space exploration and industry expand, thinking ahead about debris will become even more important, Sercel said. "Not leaving trash is part of being a good celestial citizen," he said.

NASA awarded $850,000 to a company that wants to pick up space trash the old-fashioned way — with bags

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NASA's TIMED satellite narrowly avoided colliding with Russia's dead Cosmos 2221 spacecraft this week.</li><li>In the worst-case scenario, the collision would have ejected 7,500 bits of debris into low-Earth orbit.</li></ul>Two satellites nearly collided in space on Wednesday in a harrowing encounter that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-boeing-space-startups-satellite-orbit-stock-companies-to-watch-2021-6">LeoLabs</a>, a satellite tracking company, called "too close for comfort."NASA's Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) satellite passed by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-satellite-breaks-up-orbit-space-debris-could-last-century-2023-2">Russia's</a> inoperative Cosmos 2221 spacecraft at a distance of less than 65 feet. That's shorter than the length of a tennis court.Both of these satellites are non-maneuverable, meaning neither the US or Russia have control over where they go.If they had collided, it could have decimated both satellites, blasting 2,500 to 7,500 fragments of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rocket-satellite-metals-polluting-earth-stratosphere-2023-10">space junk</a> into Earth's orbit that would now be zooming around our planet at thousands of miles per hour, faster than bullets.The fragments wouldn't have posed a danger to life on Earth, as any that penetrated our atmosphere would have burned up during free fall.But it would have threatened <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hypersonic-plane-startups-pulling-millions-from-vcs-venture-capital-2022-6">future spaceflight</a> and astronaut lives since the resulting debris could have made navigating low-Earth orbit far more treacherous."There are 'bad neighborhoods' where these massive derelicts are accumulating preferentially," LeoLabs' Senior Technical Fellow Darren McKnight told Business Insider in an email.Avoiding collisions in these congested areas is becoming increasingly difficult as the amount of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/manmade-object-satellite-outshines-nearly-every-star-night-sky-space-2023-10">objects in Earth's orbit</a> grows each year.<h2>Earth's orbit is getting overcrowded</h2><div type="image" title="Graph of spatial density of non-operational objects in low-Earth orbit." height="949" width="1049" msid="108147879" hostid="261" sizebytes="28668"></div>Near-collisions between large space objects like this are rare, but it only takes one to completely change the landscape of Earth's orbit and endanger countless other satellites, space telescopes, and even the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-unknown-orbital-debris-narrowly-missed-striking-iss-avoidance-maneuver-2020-9">International Space Station</a>.For example, two satellite collisions that occurred in 2007 and 2009, respectively, increased the amount of large debris in low-Earth orbit by roughly 70%.And with the advent of mega-constellations of internet satellites, such as <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-spacex-trying-to-stop-russia-using-starlink-2024-2">SpaceX's Starlink</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-launches-deal-project-kuiper-satellites-blue-origin-ula-arianespace-2022-4">Amazon's Kuiper</a>, the number of objects in low-Earth orbit is growing more and more each year, increasing the risk of collisions.<div type="image" title="side-by-side images of objects in LEO" height="751" width="1433" msid="108147880" hostid="261" sizebytes="148278"></div>In 2007, scientists estimated about 10,000 low-Earth objects. By 2021, that number had doubled. And most of it isn't even useful — it's space junk.Roughly 70% is debris from damaged or defunct rockets, satellites, and nonoperational payloads, according to LeoLabs.That's just what's cataloged, though.The European Space Agency <a target="_blank" href="https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Space_Debris/Space_debris_by_the_numbers">estimates</a> that nearly 1 million bits of debris between 1 cm-10 cm are circling Earth, with another 130 million bits even smaller than that.Space junk is so pervasive the International Space Station sometimes has to navigate around it.<div type="image" title="hole in Endeavor space shuttle caused by debris" height="358" width="480" msid="108147881" hostid="261" sizebytes="34636"></div>In March 2023, the ISS dodged objects twice in one month, once to avoid a collision with a satellite and then again to maneuver around debris just a few days later.Even the tiniest debris can damage the space station and endanger astronauts, though no astronaut has lost their life due to space debris (yet).<h2>The race to clean up space</h2>The consequences of space debris are very real, so much so, that the worst-case scenario has a name: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/space-junk-kessler-syndrome-chain-reaction-prevention-2018-3">Kessler syndrome</a>.In this scenario, a collision sets off a chain reaction, generating a catastrophic domino effect that produces so much space debris, no spacecraft can safely leave Earth for hundreds or even thousands of years.<div type="image" title="Illustration of space junk floating around Earth" height="1299" width="2309" msid="108147883" hostid="261" sizebytes="181986"></div>However, preventing collisions today can offset a possible Kessler syndrome scenario in the future. And some governments and private companies have begun to address the problem.New space-industry norms and even <a target="_blank" href="https://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/topics/space-debris/compendium.html">policies</a> in some countries are prompting satellite operators to design their spacecraft to self-destruct when they die, by pushing themselves into a free fall that causes them to burn up in the atmosphere.Last year the Federal Communications Commission — the US agency that regulates most communications satellites — took its first-ever enforcement action related to space debris when it fined Dish Network $150,000 for <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dish-network-fined-first-ever-fcc-enforcement-against-space-junk-2023-10">failing to properly dispose of a retired satellite</a>.Some governments seem less concerned. Both <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/india-missile-shoots-down-satellite-space-debris-junk-risk-2019-3">India</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-condemns-irresponsible-russian-anti-satellite-test-threatening-space-station-2021-11">Russia</a> have tested anti-satellite missiles by destroying their own satellites in orbit, creating new clouds of debris.As for old, inoperable spacecraft that are roaming loose in orbit, like Cosmos 2221, NASA is outsourcing research and development to private companies to collect them.In September 2023, the space agency <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/transastra-wins-nasa-contract-pick-up-space-trash-with-bags-2023-9">awarded $850,000 to TransAstra</a> for their concept of "Flytrap" space debris capture bags — basically, giant high-tech trash bags that would scoop up a lot of space junk.<div type="image" title="TransAstra space debris capture tech" height="731" width="1300" msid="108147884" hostid="261" sizebytes="33344"></div>Outside of the US, other companies are coming up with their own innovative disposal solutions. The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astroscale-mission-to-clean-up-space-junk-magnets-2021-3">Japanese company Astroscale</a> designed a spacecraft with a magnetic plate that can attach to dead satellites and pull them into a free fall.But these space clean-up technologies are still in testing. The European Space Agency plans to be the first to remove a piece of debris from Earth's orbit with its Clearspace-1 mission, scheduled to launch in 2026.Meanwhile, LeoLabs hopes that its precision data on objects in orbit will help satellite operators foresee and avoid near-collisions like the one that happened Wednesday.

A dead Russian spacecraft almost collided with a NASA satellite. The crash could have sent 7,500 bits of debris rocketing around Earth.

<ul><li><keyword id="943402" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="space-debris" source="Orion">Space debris</keyword> or <keyword id="938050" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="space-junk" source="Orion">space junk</keyword> has been an issue for years, and it continues to be a major problem for space exploration.</li><li>There were multiple incidents of space debris potentially colliding with the International Space Station this year.</li><li>Here’s a look at what causes space debris, who’s responsible and what can be done.</li></ul>2021 has been a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/list-of-the-most-exciting-and-weird-things-that-happened-in-space-in-2021/slidelist/88278413.cms">big year for space </a>with major launches and events like space tourism kicking off, the first chilli peppers growing in space, and more. There were some unfortunate events too with one such incident of the International Space Station (ISS) <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/international-space-station-moved-by-1240-meters-to-dodge-space-junk-of-a-demolished-chinese-satellite/articleshow/87640888.cms">moving 1,240 metres away</a> to avoid space debris caused by a demolished Chinese satellite. This isn’t the only incident of the year though as there have been quite a few instances of space debris that could have caused collisions. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="So what is space debris?" comment="subhead" text="So what is space debris?">So what is space debris?</cmsannotation> Space debris or space junk is basically discarded material from launch vehicles like rockets or parts of spacecraft that are left to roam around in space. Since this junk material floats around space, it can often come in contact with satellites or space stations risking collision. Space debris can also come from explosions in space or through missile tests to destroy satellites. Since space debris floats in low Earth orbit and at speeds of around 15,700 miles per hour, this makes it highly possible for satellites or a spacecraft to collide with the materials. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="How much space debris is there?" comment="subhead" text="How much space debris is there?">How much space debris is there?</cmsannotation> According to the US Department of Defense’s global Space Surveillance Network (SSN) more than <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/news/orbital_debris.html">15,000 pieces of space debris</a> larger than 4 inches have been tracked. It is also estimated that there are around 200,000 pieces sized between 0.4 and 4 inches, and millions of pieces smaller than 1cm. According to NASA, even a tiny bit of space debris colliding with a spacecraft can cause big problems. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Who is responsible for the space junk?" comment="subhead" text="Who is responsible for the space junk?">Who is responsible for the space junk?</cmsannotation> Russia, the US, China, France and India are responsible for space debris. According to <a href="https://www.digitaltrends.com/news/which-country-most-space-junk/">reports</a>, Russia is said to have the most space debris estimated to be around 14,500. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Space debris events in 2021" comment="subhead" text="Space debris events in 2021">Space debris events in 2021</cmsannotation> Given the fact that space junk can float in space for several years makes it a big problem. For example, a chunk of an old rocket launched by the US in 1994 passed close to the ISS causing the space station to move its course. Space junk from an old Chinese weather satellite that was destroyed in 2007 also almost collided with the ISS last month. A Russian satellite was also destroyed last month which the US said led to more than 1,500 pieces of large space debris and hundreds of thousands of smaller debris that could potentially collide with the ISS. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Can space debris be removed?" comment="subhead" text="Can space debris be removed?">Can space debris be removed?</cmsannotation> Space debris that orbits below 600 km will fall back to Earth in several years but those that are above 1,000 km will continue floating for 100 years or more, according to NASA. But there are missions planned by Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) with startups to clear space junk. JAXA has partnered with Astroscale and the first phase of the debris removal mission is planned for 2022. ESA is planning to launch its mission in 2025 with Swiss startup ClearSpace. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/nasas-james-webb-telescope-has-several-crucial-deployments-before-its-mission/articleshow/88516011.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">The next few weeks for NASA’s James Webb telescope are going to be the most crucial, here’s why</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/nasa-plans-to-return-to-the-moon-while-esa-has-missions-targeted-for-jupiter-in-2022/articleshow/88445816.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Space science missions to look forward to in 2022</a>

Space debris continued to be a big problem in 2021 and it’s only going to get worse

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Japanese company <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/space-debris-junk-orbit-airbus-clearspace-astroscale-nasa-esa-contracts-2021-2">Astroscale</a> launched a magnetic satellite as a demo of a space junk clean-up effort.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-unknown-orbital-debris-narrowly-missed-striking-iss-avoidance-maneuver-2020-9">Space junk</a> rockets around Earth faster than bullets, threatening <keyword id="41530" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="satellites">satellites</keyword> and the space station.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/soviet-satellite-chinese-rocket-might-crash-in-space-2020-10">Dead satellites</a> are the greatest threats, but there are few efforts to get rid of them.</li></ul>Earth's <keyword id="6375157" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Orbit">orbit</keyword> desperately needs someone to take out the trash. A Japanese company is trying to keep the problem from getting worse.The company, called Astroscale, has designed a spacecraft with a magnetic plate that can attach to dead satellites - as long as they have the other side of the magnet. That enables it to pull the satellites into a freefall, burning up both the spacecraft and its satellite passenger in Earth's atmosphere.The first version of this technology is called the End-of-Life Services by Astroscale demonstration mission, or ELSA-d, and it launched from Kazakhstan on Monday. The spacecraft carries a fake piece of "<keyword id="943402" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Space-Debris">space debris</keyword>" with the necessary magnetic plate built in. The plan calls for ELSA-d to release this fake debris then practice grabbing it while both are in orbit.In the future, satellite companies could build this type of magnetic docking plate into their own spacecraft and hire Astroscale to remove satellites from orbit when they go defunct."This is an incredible moment, not only for our team, but for the entire satellite servicing industry, as we work towards maturing the debris-removal market and ensuring the responsible use of our orbits," Nobu Okada, Astroscale Founder and CEO, said in a <a href="https://astroscale.com/astroscales-elsa-d-mission-ready-for-launch-from-baikonur-cosmodrome-on-saturday-march-20/">statement</a>.In other words, as the company <a href="https://twitter.com/astroscale_HQ/status/1373901748230754304">tweeted</a> after launch: "Let the era of space sustainability begin."However, existing space junk doesn't have built-in magnetic plates compatible with Astroscale's new spacecraft. According to the <a href="https://www.esa.int/Safety_Security/Space_Debris/Space_debris_by_the_numbers">European Space Agency</a>, more than 2,400 dead satellites and 100 million bits of debris are already circling Earth - space junk that ELSA-d cannot clean up.As Earth's orbit gets <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starlink-internet-satellites-percent-failure-rate-space-debris-risk-2020-10">more and more congested</a>, this space trash becomes more likely to crash, and those collisions can then send new clouds of metal chunks careening around the planet. Over time, such collisions could create a thick belt of debris that, in a worst-case scenario, may cut off access to outer space.<h2>Space collisions create 'gunshot blasts' of high-speed debris</h2><div type="image" title="rocket body explosions illustration space debris junk esa" height="2480" width="3508" msid="81654516" hostid="261"></div>Even tiny bits of space debris are dangerous, since they zip around the planet at roughly 10 times the speed of a bullet. Last year, the International Space Station had to maneuver away from space debris on three occasions, since a collision could endanger the astronauts on board.But the largest pieces of space junk - the dead satellites and discarded rocket husks - pose the greatest collision risk.In October, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/soviet-satellite-chinese-rocket-might-crash-in-space-2020-10">a defunct Soviet satellite and an old Chinese rocket body passed alarmingly close together</a>. Since nobody could control either spacecraft, there was no way to prevent a collision.Luckily, the objects did not crash. But if they had, astronomer <a href="https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1316792122616545288">Jonathan McDowell</a> calculated it would have produced an explosion roughly equivalent to detonating 14 metric tons of TNT and sent chunks of spacecraft rocketing in all directions.Prior to that, in January 2020, two dead satellites <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-air-force-satellites-might-crash-in-space-over-pittsburgh-2020-1">almost crossed paths</a> and exploded into hundreds of thousands of bits of debris.If they'd collided, that would have been like replacing "two satellites with essentially two shotgun blasts of debris," Dan Ceperley, the CEO of satellite-tracking company LeoLabs, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-air-force-satellites-might-crash-in-space-over-pittsburgh-2020-1">told Insider at the time</a>. Scientists have observed real collisions in space as well. In 2007, China tested an anti-satellite missile by <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-anti-satellite-test" target="_blank" rel="noopener">obliterating one of its own weather satellites</a>. Two years later, one American and one Russian spacecraft accidentally collided. Those two events alone increased the amount of large debris in low-Earth orbit <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/centers/hq/library/find/bibliographies/space_debris">by about 70%</a>.Then when India conducted its own anti-satellite missile test in 2019, the explosion created an estimated <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/india-anti-satellite-missile-test-space-debris-cloud-2019-3">6,500 pieces of debris</a> larger than an eraser.<div type="image" title="india anti satellite missile asat test mission shakti space debris junk cloud field orbit simulation march 2019 analytical graphics inc 2" height="902" width="1202" msid="81654519" hostid="261"></div>All in all, more than 500 such "fragmentation events" have created nearly <a href="https://www.esa.int/Safety_Security/Space_Debris/Space_debris_by_the_numbers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">130 million</a> bits of debris in Earth's orbit.<h2>Out-of-control orbital debris could cut off humans' access to space</h2>If the space-junk problem gets extreme, a chain of collisions could spiral out of control and surround Earth in a practically <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/space-junk-kessler-syndrome-chain-reaction-prevention-2018-3">impassable field of debris</a>. This possibility is known as the <keyword id="9199608" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="kessler-syndrome">Kessler syndrome</keyword>, after Donald J. Kessler, who worked for NASA's Johnson Space Center and calculated in a 1978 paper that it could take hundreds or even thousands of years for such debris to clear enough to make spaceflight safe again."It is a long-term effect that takes place over decades and centuries," Ted Muelhaupt, who leads The Aerospace Corporation's satellite system analysis, previously <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-air-force-satellites-might-crash-in-space-over-pittsburgh-2020-1">told</a> Insider. "Anything that makes a lot of debris is going to increase that risk."The sheer number of objects in Earth's orbit may already be having a Kessler-like effect. Experts say that space congestion has gotten significantly worse since companies like SpaceX began launching large fleets of internet satellites into orbit."This has a massive impact on the launch side," Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/07/business/rocket-lab-debris-launch-traffic-scn/index.html">CNN Business</a> in October. He added that rockets "have to try and weave their way up in between these [satellite] constellations."Astroscale aims to help ensure that dead, uncontrollable satellites don't wind up lurking inside those constellations.<h2>Some companies may clean up old space junk</h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/space-debris-junk-orbit-airbus-clearspace-astroscale-nasa-esa-contracts-2021-2">A few companies</a> have already expressed an interest in or commitment to cleaning up some existing space junk.ClearSpace, based in Switzerland, recently <a href="https://www.esa.int/Newsroom/Press_Releases/Call_for_Media_ESA_and_ClearSpace_SA_sign_contract_for_world_s_first_debris_removal_mission">signed a contract</a> with the European Space Agency to remove part of an old Vega rocket from orbit in 2025. Airbus, meanwhile, has <a href="https://www.sstl.co.uk/media-hub/latest-news/2019/removedebris-success-for-harpoon-experiment">tested</a> satellite-capture methods using a harpoon and a net. Astroscale's demo mission aims to test its magnet strategy. Shortly after separating from its "space junk" prototype, ELSA-d will try to re-capture it. If that basic maneuver goes well, the spacecraft will try more complicated tasks: Astroscale will instruct the debris prototype to tumble, spinning like a dead satellite normally would. That will force the ELSA-d spacecraft to assess it target and line up with the prototype's docking magnet.Once the demonstration is done, the plan is for ELSA-d and its captured "debris" to plunge into the atmosphere to meet a fiery demise.No company so far has a large-scale space clean-up in its sights, though.SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell has <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-could-help-clean-up-space-junk-in-orbit-2020-11">said</a> that the company's mega-spaceship, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-to-launch-starship-prototype-sn11-watch-live-2021-3">Starship</a>, could one day be put to the task. But for now, the number of objects in Earth's orbit is growing every year.

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