UK companies set to clean up space sector
A mission to clean up space junk and a cash injection are helping the UK industry to grow
March was a particularly good month for British spaceflight, seeing the launch of a prototype spacecraft that will one day clean space debris out of low-Earth orbit, while five British space companies received over £1 million of government funding to help foster international co-operation and innovation.
On 22 March, UK company, Astroscale, launched the Elsa-d (End-of-Life Service by Astroscale demonstration) spacecraft into orbit, the first step in a project to clean up some of the 9,000 tonnes of space debris around our planet. Elsa-d will deploy a 17kg ‘client’ mini-sat, which it will then recapture using its magnetic docking plate. To mimic space junk, the client will be sent into a tumble to see if it can still be recaptured under more trying conditions. If successful, the technology will be used to latch onto defunct satellites and deorbit them, clearing them out of low-Earth orbit.
The launch came just a few days after the UK Space Agency announced that five new projects have received a total of over £1 million in funding from the government – including £85,000 to help identify and promote sustainable uses of outer space, like the Astroscale mission.
The move is part of a major drive by the UK Space Agency to promote British space industry, which has grown more than 60 per cent since 2010.
“Space technologies are part of almost every aspect of our daily lives,” says Graham Turnock, chief executive of the UK Space Agency. “With rapid technological innovation, space offers a broad and growing range of opportunities to support economic activity and protect the environment. These projects champion the best of British innovation while strengthening worldwide partnerships.”
The sustainable space project is in support of the efforts of the UN Office of Outer Space Affairs, while the other funds were given to UK companies working with international partners. These include: a collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency to investigate ice on the surface of Mars; an in-orbit service for tracking rockets with companies in Japan, France and the US; a system to forecast flooding in India; and a project to enhance UK-built camera technology that will be used by space missions, including NASA’s future Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. www.gov.uk/government/ organisations/uk-space-agency