Innovative British craft to grab space junk and burn it up in atmosphere

THE world’s most advanced litterpicker will be launched into space next week to clean up floating debris that is threatening satellites and the International Space Station (ISS).

Surrey University’s Space Centre has designed a craft that can be deployed from the ISS and use a harpoon and net to grab space junk, then fall into Earth’s atmosphere and burn up.

The little craft, named Removedebris, is due to launch from the Kennedy Space Centre on Monday, aboard one of Elon Musk’s Spacex Falcon 9 rockets.

It is estimated that more than 7,600 tons of space junk orbits the Earth – with some objects moving faster than a speeding bullet, approaching speeds of 30,000mph. Prof Guglielmo Aglietti, director of the Space Centre, said: “A few significant collisions have already happened. Therefore, to maintain the safety of current and future space assets, the issue of the control and reduction of the space debris has to be addressed.

“We believe the technologies we will be demonstrating with Removedebris could provide feasible answers to the space junk problem.”

Sam Gyimah, the science minister, said: “Space debris is a growing concern so it’s great to see a British university and our innovative space sector lead the way in searching for solutions.”

The craft will perform two experiments to deploy and then capture a small ‘cubesat’ satellite, first using a net, and then using a harpoon, both designed by Airbus UK.

It will then deploy a large dragsail to allow it to fall out of orbit, and burn up in the atmosphere.

Since 1957, more than 5,250 launches have led to tens of thousands of tracked objects in orbit.

But only about 1,200 are working satellites – the rest is debris.