Switzerland launches a satellite to collect space debris

In 1957Sputnik 1Since launch, countless satellites and space shuttles have been launched, resulting in more than 500,000 space debris (space debris) floating around the earth. Even if it says garbage, there are a lot of sizes that can cause damage to the International Space Station and harm to astronauts who do extravehicular activities, so you can not leave them alone.

In order to manage this, Swiss scientists and engineers are planning to launch a satellite "CleanSpace One" to focus wisdom and clean debris.

Cleaning up Earth's orbit: A Swiss satellite to tackle space debris

You can see what "CleanSpace One" is, by seeing the following movie.

CleanSpace One - a Swiss satellite to tackle space junk - YouTube


Sputnik 1 which was launched in 1957.


Since then, 55 years later, various satellites are flying around the Earth and supporting our lives.


The number of satellites themselves has also reached quite a few.


In 2009Iridium's communications satellite "Iridium 33" collides with Russian military communications satellite "Cosmos 2251"Then, a lot of space debris occurred.



Space debris newly occurred in this accident is shown in red.


A graph showing the increase in the number of debris. NASA monitors debris with diameters of 10 cm or more, but it has over 16,000 pieces.


So, the EPFL in Switzerland is planning on "CleanSpace One", a satellite that collects space debris.


CleanSpace One approaches from the back (the right side), debris floating in the front (left side).


At the tip of CleanSpace One, like a belt stretches in all directions.


This will extend towards the debris and ...


I firmly hold in.


And it enters the atmosphere with debris and burns out with debris.


The whole process of the plan is like this. The size of the satellite is about 30 cm × 10 cm × 10 cm, and the plan is planned to launch satellites in roughly 3 to 5 years.


SF work also has works with space debris as an issue, for example "Mr. Makoto Yukimura's" Planetes "is working as a hero collecting space debris.

PLANETES Web - Planetes official website
http://www.planet-es.net/


The film is animated by Coach Taniguchi Goro in 2003. There are many different parts in the original and animation, but it is a work that has received high evaluation as an animation set in the universe.

PlanetES [NC-OP] [HD-1080p] - YouTube