Anika Begay
A British satellite designed to test ways to clean up debris in space has just successfully trapped a simulated piece of junk in orbit using a large net. On Sunday, September 16, the spacecraft, known as the RemoveDEBRIS satellite, deployed its onboard net, which then captured a nearby target probe that the spacecraft had released seconds earlier. The demonstration shows that an idea as simple as a net could be an effective way to clean up all the material in orbit around Earth.
The RemoveDEBRIS satellite is designed to test several different methods for cleaning up space debris, which has become a growing problem since we started launching rockets into orbit. Thousands of dead and uncontrollable objects remain in orbit, including decommissioned satellites, spent launch vehicles, and other pieces of debris that have been broken off from other spacecraft. And all of this debris is moving fast, more than 17,000 miles per hour. The more debris we have in orbit, the greater the chance that those pieces could collide at breakneck speeds, creating even more debris that could pose a threat to other spacecraft.
