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Imagine: the vacuum in the space around the earth, the curves of the planets against the dark universe. Maybe some Strauss is playing. An orbiting satellite comes into view. Its boxy fuselage is made up of wings with solar panels extending on both sides.

Unfortunately, this satellite is not alone. A few years ago, an abandoned Russian rocket exploded in orbit due to a propellant mixture leak. Or test an anti-satellite missile, blow up a spacecraft and spread its parts around the earth. Or a satellite is blown up, detached from its rocket, and throws a bolt into orbit.

When our satellite appeared, that bolt, paint chip, or broken pillar was approaching at an extremely fast speed. Objects orbiting the earth move very fast—17,500 miles per hour (28,163 km/h) is the headline number, but 5 miles per second may be easier to conceptualize.

Normally, junk and spacecraft will pass by each other. If they don’t—if the satellite collides with those debris—the resulting damage could destroy tens of millions of dollars in hardware.

The odds began to shift. More satellites are being launched, and the number of active spacecraft is expected to increase tenfold or more in the next few years. The most recent anti-satellite weapon test and the first collision between a spacecraft in operation and a decommissioned spacecraft in 2009 resulted in more debris being scattered.

Each new collision increases the amount of debris in orbit. NASA currently estimates that these debris weigh more than 8,000 metric tons and consist of more than 500,000 pieces of debris over a centimeter in diameter.

Part of the reason for this surge is that companies are scrambling to make more money by launching more satellites in orbit. Now, an industry is emerging to stop space junk by repairing or removing dying satellites before they become part of the problem.

One of these companies is Astroscale, a company founded by CEO Nobu Okada in Japan in 2013, with offices in the United States and the United Kingdom. It is about to conduct its first major test to prove that this is possible. On March 22, the company launched a 200 kg spacecraft on a Russian Soyuz rocket. It is called ELSA-d, which stands for the end of life service of Astroscale-demonstration.

All satellites will eventually stop working. Their batteries lose their ability to charge, their propellant is exhausted, they are hit by orbital debris, or, like any machine, they are damaged.

Satellites flying in low-Earth orbits 2,000 miles from the earth are the busiest areas on the earth and will eventually be pulled into the atmosphere by gravity. Current international standards require these satellites to be designed to burn out within 25 years-but it is becoming increasingly clear that this is not enough to reduce the risk of collision. Even five years, the voluntary standards adopted by many satellite operators may prove too long to prevent dangerous congestion.

Enter Astroscale: When a satellite's lifespan ends, Astroscale expects the satellite operator to pay for it, let it send a spacecraft to zip up, grab the scrapped satellite, and drag it to a lower orbit , Where it will burn out faster.

To prove that it can be done, Elsa-D combined two spacecraft into one. In space, it will release a target satellite with a special magnetic plate and maneuver to intercept it. Then, it will release the target again, but this time spinning, because the damaged satellite may roll over in space. If it can catch a rolling satellite, the final demonstration will involve maneuvering around the target and checking with sensors.

None of this is simple-it requires sophisticated sensors, software that can react in real time, and fine-tuned robots and propulsion systems.

ELSA-d was one of the first private spacecraft to assist another satellite in orbit, largely because most satellites were not designed for it. Getting into space is so expensive and risky that engineers don't expect the ability to refuel or perform repairs-everything is for durability.

"The International Space Station and Hubble are actually two notable exceptions to the general rule, that is, the vast majority of spacecraft are optimized for ground assembly, integration, and testing-never visited, accessed or modified in space. "Ben Reid, the former head of space services research at NASA's Goddard Space Center, told Quartz last year.

This poses a big problem: Astronauts repairing the International Space Station or the Hubble Space Telescope can improvise in ways that robots cannot do. During the last mission to repair the Hubble spectrometer in 2009, an astronaut had to Use brute force to remove a handle after one of the bolts holding it in place has been removed.

Nevertheless, robots can still deal with uncooperative targets. Last year, Northrop Grumman demonstrated a spacecraft called the Mission Expansion Vehicle or MEV. Its target is an Intelsat communications satellite that has been in use for 19 years. It has run out of fuel and is expected to lose its ability to stay in the correct position. The MEV can fly to the satellite and plug the docking probe into the unused engine port to intercept it.

Now, MEV can use its own engine to keep the satellite in the correct position for another five years-this is a major economic benefit for Intelsat, which paid more than 120 million U.S. dollars in 1999 to build the satellite, and now Will be able to postpone replacing it. Intelsat has hired Northrop to use a second MEV to extend the life of another satellite, and the docking is expected in the next few weeks.

Using the MEV model to compete for uncooperative satellites in place, despite all its benefits, it is still very expensive: it requires a dedicated spacecraft, rather than a more cost-effective vehicle, which can be used before moving to the next spacecraft. A spacecraft provides services.

NASA is developing a mission called OSAM-1, which takes this idea into account. It is expected to demonstrate a variety of space service technologies in missions after 2024, including refueling the Landsat-7, a US Earth imaging satellite launched in 1999.

Landsat-7 is not designed for the top of the track. NASA spacecraft will need to use robotic tools to remove the heat shield and remove the metal wire holding the fuel valve cover, deploy refueling tools to pump in new propellant, and then try to shut everything off again so that the satellite can continue on the road.

This technology is necessary to clean up old junk in orbit, from dead satellites to abandoned rockets. In order to make things easier in the future, satellite designers need to design vehicles with functions such as accessible compartments and refueling ports. Lockheed Martin said in February that it would design its next-generation GPS satellites for service, but this choice is an outsider.

"It's a bit like a chicken and an egg," NASA's Reid said. "There is no service to the public. If there is no service provider, why would anyone design their satellites to be repairable?"

Space safety advocates hope to start with something as simple as a sticker—standardized stickers with symbols that can become optical targets for approaching satellites without adding too much quality.

"The most difficult part of the task is the autonomous rendezvous and the grab-the time period when we are a few meters away from another free-floating object. By the way, it does not have a grab fixture. We need to grab it without destroying it. Place, there are no beacons, LEDs or retroreflectors," Reid said. In contrast, a spacecraft arriving at the International Space Station will look for pre-placed reflective targets on the space station to accurately determine their distance and approach speed.

Astroscale's tone went one step further: it wanted satellite operators to use similar symbols, but made the grab simpler on the magnetized metal plate. OneWeb, a company that is building a large satellite constellation in low earth orbit, said it will install similar fixtures on all of its spacecraft.

"If they can remove debris, I will pay per ton," General David Thompson, the senior commander of the US Space Force, told reporters last week when asked whether the government should pay companies to remove debris from orbit.

This may be a way for space services to become a real business and avoid the chicken or egg question of who will invest in expensive technologies first, and the true benefits of these technologies can be seen as fragmentation. Astroscale and other companies making this investment hope that the government can push satellite operators to set higher standards and also become pathfinder customers, just as they do in satellite launches, manned spaceflight, and now moon exploration.

"We know that sustainability on track is big business," Charity Weeden, Astroscale's head of public policy, told Quartz. "It opens the door for access to on-orbit services-trailers, gas stations, machinery workshops, etc.. It allows operators to choose and flexibility, service continuity, and certainty against upcoming regulatory requirements. It helps To protect your investment, thereby protecting the track environment."

However, it is not easy to do this, because there are territorial disputes over who will make these decisions and how to proceed within national governments and global institutions. "Unfortunately, I don't think it is a linear path," Vuitton warned, but he was encouraged that so many different NGOs, trade groups, and governments have never been involved in discussing the correctness of dealing with space debris. method. However, this kind of dialogue will depend on the possibility that technical experts can prove-this is why Elsa-D and similar public and private sector tasks are so important.

"We are in the space for all these conversations because we are both supporters of policy and advancing the regulatory structure, and we are also doing something about it," Vuitton said. "There is a lot of talk, but not a lot of action. We are opening a lawsuit."

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