Skip to main content

The ESA’s space junk collection plan involves shooting large nets at derelict satellites

The collision of American satellite Iridium 33 with Russian satellite Kosmos-2251 in 2009 created thousands of pieces of space debris larger than four inches in diameter. At the time, NASA insisted the International Space Station (ISS) was safe, while China suggested its satellites were threatened. Two years later, ISS had to perform a avoidance maneuver to put itself at a safe passing distance from incoming debris caused by the collision.

Some 29,000 pieces of space debris larger than four inches in diameter are known to orbit Earth, according to the European Space Agency (ESA). The number of smaller particles reaches well into the hundred-millions. Every time a satellite explodes or some debris collides with another, that figure grows in a domino effect that may one day lead to a scenario known as the Kessler syndrome, in which debris is so prolific that orbit becomes unfeasible.

Recommended Videos

ESA is intent on addressing this problem by actively removing large objects of debris from orbit through an initiative called Clean Space. The initiative’s first mission, e.Deorbit, will involve using either a net or a robotic arm to capture one of ESA’s derelict satellites in low orbit and burn it up in an atmospheric reentry.

The agency has just revealed a net gun designed for the e.Deorbit mission by Polish company SKA Polka. A small version of the gun has been tested on a parabolic flight that simulates microgravity and has proven to be affective against low-flying aerial drones at ESA’s Industry Days event in May.

Weightless net testing for derelict satellite capture

Projected to launch in 2023, Clean Space’s e.Deorbit mission will mark the first proactive effort to safely remove debris from space – a task that will only become more essential in the years to come.

Dyllan Furness
Former Contributor
Dyllan Furness is a freelance writer from Florida. He covers strange science and emerging tech for Digital Trends, focusing…
The 60 best space photos of all time from Nasa, Hubble, and more
This landscape of “mountains” and “valleys” speckled with glittering stars is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth.

We're living through a golden age of space exploration, from rovers landing on Mars to astronauts living on board the International Space Station to the most complex and capable telescopes ever devised sending back stunning images of the cosmos. With technology like the high definition cameras on the Perseverance rover and the incredible sensitive infrared detectors on the James Webb Space Telescope, we're getting new views of the world beyond our own planet every day.

Some images of space stay entrenched in the public imagination, like the famous Pale blue Dot photos from 1990. It shows Earth as seen by the Voyager spacecraft just minutes before its camera was turned off. Traveling beyond the orbit of Pluto, the image shows the view when Voyager turned back around and viewed Earth -- the tiny, almost imperceptible dot seen against the emptiness of space.

Read more
Ground-fired lasers to be tested in fight against space junk
An illustration showing Earth-orbiting space junk.

A team of researchers in Japan is working on a system that uses laser beams fired from the ground to knock out pieces of space junk.

The growing amount of space junk orbiting Earth poses a serious threat to satellites and crewed facilities such as the International Space Station and China’s Tiangong.

Read more
Space bags are the next big idea to clean up orbital junk
Render of a TransAstra capture bag catching a spent rocket part.

Render of a TransAstra capture bag catching a spent rocket part. TransAstra

Space junk in low-Earth orbit poses a serious and ongoing threat to the thousands of functioning satellites currently orbiting our planet, as well as to the crews aboard the International Space Station and China’s recently deployed orbital outpost.

Read more