What are space cleaners?

– RemoveDebris Project.

RemoveDebris is a European consortium made up of the European Space Agency (ESA), the University of Surrey (Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd), Airbus, and Ariane Group, among others. The technique used by RemoveDebris is called the harpoon.

– Free space project.
Following a call for bids in 2019, the European Space Agency selected the proposal of Swiss start-up Clearspace, founded by researchers from the Research Institute of the École Polytechnique Federale in Lausanne. Now at the helm of the European Union (ESA, Airbus, OHB, etc.), the institute is working on a prototype: the Adrios satellite (active debris removal / in-orbit service), the purpose of which is to dock the debris in the synchronization of its paths, and then give it the necessary momentum until it enters the atmosphere It burns there naturally.

– Astrocale Project.
In 2013, Japanese entrepreneur Nobuo Okada founded the startup Astroscale with his own money. Among the investors are Japanese funds JAFCO and ICNJ, as well as Mitsubishi.
And this “satellite hunter” has a cube shape of about 180 kg, the size of a washing machine with eight reactors. The vehicle is equipped with tools to track faulty aircraft and a retractable magnetic capture system.

– Project of the Japanese Space Agency (Jaxa).
To clean up space, scientists from Japan’s space agency Jaxa are testing a new method: a rope (a type of “rope” braided with stainless steel and aluminum ropes) that, via electromagnetism, collects waste to return it to the atmosphere. The rope is 700 meters (2,300 feet) long, but is expected in the future to reach 5,000 to 10,000 metres.

– Spaceblower project.
SpaceBlower is a project initiated and funded by CNES, with support and co-financing from Bertin Technologies (now CT France).

The goal of this project, from an aircraft carrying SpaceBlower, is that this one-time-launched aircraft eject its plume, i.e. the artificial atmosphere in front of the debris, by spraying a cloud of fine particles to slow down the debris thus avoiding any collision.

– The Foam Debris Hunter project.
In 2021, StartRocket aims to clean up its waste space, thanks to a cleaning satellite.

According to the “Foam Debris Catcher” program, the satellite will push polymer foam on space waste so that the latter is reduced and consumed more quickly in the Earth’s atmosphere thanks to the drag force.