Classic weapons to spear and capture space junk

A European satellite launched to find ways to tackle the growing amount of space rubbish will use technology as familiar to the Ancient Romans as astronauts – nets and harpoons.

Engineers have created harpoons for two pioneering debris clearing projects, and said the appeal of such time-tested concepts was their simplicity.

“This is a really nice, simple piece of technology but what we’ve done is we’ve updated it for use in space,” said Alastair Wayman, an engineer at Airbus Space in the southern English town of Stevenage.

The Remove Debris satellite launched on a Space X rocket is carrying different devices designed to help clear the debris orbiting Earth.

It has docked with the International Space Station and tests are expected to begin in the next few weeks.

“All we have to do is sit away from our target spacecraft, fire our harpoon towards it and then once it’s impacted we’ve captured our piece of space debris,” Mr Wayman said.

One of the harpoons is 30 centimetres long and is intended to be fired at a target about 20 metres away, before reeling it back in on a rope.

A larger harpoon, 1.5 metres long and weighing 2.2 kilograms will be used to capture junk weighing up to 8 tonnes.

Scientists say there are about 7,000 tonnes of space debris orbiting Earth at about 27,000kph, making it very dangerous to spacecraft.

The debris ranges from tiny screws or paint chips to rocket sections or defunct satellites.

Other devices being tested on the Remove Debris satellite include a net to catch debris, a light-based ranging system, and a sail that will pull the craft back into Earth’s atmosphere where it and the debris would burn up harmlessly.