Martino Agostini

Technology, Business, Strategy … so what ?

Martino Agostini

Technology, Business, Strategy … so what ?
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Space debris : What to do ?

Space debris : What to do ?

Decades of launches have left Earth surrounded by a halo of space junk: more than 17 000 trackable objects larger than a coffee cup, which threaten working missions with catastrophic collision. Even a 1 cm nut could hit with the force of a hand grenade.
The rising population of space debris increases the potential danger to all space vehicles, but especially to the International Space Station, space shuttles and other spacecraft with humans aboard. Space debris seen from high Earth orbit (HEO). The two main debris fields are the ring of objects in geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) and the cloud of objects in low Earth orbit (LEO).

Space Debris
Space Debris

ESA tests the potential of grabbing derelict satellites

e.Deorbit_mission_profile_large
e.Deorbit_mission_profile_large

The basic idea is simple: set a satellite to catch a satellite. e.Deorbit will rendezvous with, grapple and hard-capture the drifting satellite, then push the pair down to burn up harmlessly in the atmosphere.

More info on http://www.esa.int/

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