The European Space Agency's ClearSpace-1 satellite was zeroing in on the spent payload adaptor from a 2013 rocket launch. Its task would be to extend arms, grab the chunk of debris, hug it tightly, and then pull it back into the Earth's atmosphere, de-orbiting and removing it from low-Earth orbit. On August 10th, mission controllers detected multiple pieces of space debris near its target - debris that was probably dislodged from it in the recent past. They're now scrutinizing the situation to plan their next step in the mission.
the cascade is portrayed as happening suddenly, triggered just hours after the Russians destroy a test satellite. In reality, the process will be gradual. Like global warming, we know there will be a point of no return if we don’t change our ways. We just don’t know exactly where that hard line lies. Fortunately, there are several projects trying to solve this problem, one of which is a collaboration between the European Space Agency and a Swiss startup called ClearSpace.
The component doesn’t pose any major hazards, but it’s about the same size and mass as more dangerous satellites, and it is in a single solid piece. Or so we thought. Recent observations by the United States 18th Space Defense Squadron show that there are multiple objects orbiting near the adapter, and they weren’t there before. The new debris was likely caused by the hypervelocity impact of some small, untracked debris fragments.
The ClearSpace team doesn’t think the new objects will pose a critical challenge, and the pilot mission is moving forward as scheduled. But these new observations emphasize just how important ClearSpace and similar missions are. Collisions are becoming more common, and the time for solutions is growing shorter.
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