A three-ton rocket segment drifts about 600 km above Earth. The satellite operated by the Japanese company Astroscale tracked the 15-year-old piece of space junk and photographed it up close, the first image of its kind to show in detail what we leave behind in space.
Space junk is a discarded rocket segment that is about 11m by 4m and has a mass of three tonnes, according to the BBC.
This is the first time anyone has managed to get this close with such a large piece of space debris. Astroscale is developing a business to remove space junk from orbit. But the current mission will not do that yet, instead testing the sensors and software needed for safe operations. A space cleanup should take place within the next two years, the company says.
The issue of orbital debris and sustainable use of space is becoming a hot topic at the moment.
Millions of objects of technological detritus have accumulated in space since the dawn of the space age in 1957 – from paint splotches to abandoned rocket upper stages like the one photographed by Astroscale.
The Adras-J satellite will spend the next few weeks monitoring the rocket segment
This wandering swarm of metal and other materials risks colliding with and destroying the functioning satellites we use to communicate and monitor the planet.
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Missile hulls pose a particular danger due to their immense bulk.
The one pictured came from Japan’s H-IIA launch vehicle, which lifted a CO2 measuring spacecraft called Gosat in 2009. The upper section of the rocket ejected Gosat to an altitude of about 600 km.
But while more modern rockets ensure that all their parts return to Earth shortly after a flight, this one remained in space. And she is far from alone.
The European Space Agency counted 2,220 rocket bodies still in orbit today.
Astroscale calls its rendezvous mission Adras-J, or Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan. It is made by an intelligent spacecraft that was launched on February 18. The satellite has been approaching the body of H-IIA since then. Adras-J used cameras and algorithms to make the final approach. Great care is needed not to collide with the rocket segment, which is constantly rotating slowly.
Astroscale employees in the UK built the “ground segment” for the mission, which is the system used to communicate with Adras-J. They also did a lot of the “flight dynamics” work, which is about precise navigation.
Operations were split between Mission Control in Tokyo and the company’s UK base at Harwell in Oxfordshire.
The plan is to spend the coming weeks taking more images and gathering information about the rocket segment, such as the state of the structure, its spin rate and spin axis.
Adras-J will try to fly around the rocket body in the process.
Future Astroscale missions will step in and grab the piece with robotic arms. On this occasion, Adras-J will be limited to an experiment in which it will try to slow the rocket’s rotation. The activity will involve pulling thrusters towards the body in a direction opposite to its rotational motion. The pressure should decelerate the rotation speed.
A number of companies around the world are developing technologies similar to Astroscale.
Experts say that to prevent a cascade of collisions in orbit, it’s imperative that spacefaring nations start removing a few large chunks of space junk each year.
Publisher: MI
Tags: Giant space junk photographed close time Japanese company clean space
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