Debris

Tiny bursts of electrical energy caused by collisions of objects no wider than a pencil lead could one day allow pieces of space debris smaller than one millimeter in diameter to be tracked, reducing the danger to spacecraft in Earth orbit.

A team of ESA scientists has developed a way to use lasers, special telescopes, detectors, and light filters tuned to specific wavelengths to increase contrast with the sky and accurately track space debris even in broad daylight.

Space debris is a serious problem that won’t be going away anytime soon, but researchers have put forward a novel way to keep things in check, making a case for charging satellite operators an “orbital-use fee” to reduce the risk of collisions.

Space has the prospect of one day getting a bit cleaner as a satellite harpooned a piece of simulated debris in low Earth orbit. The RemoveDEBRIS technology demonstrator deployed a target panel at the end of a boom, then skewered it with a metal harpoon traveling at 20 m/s (44.7 mph, 72 km/h).

Dutch artist and designer Daan Roosegaarde has a knack for raising environmental awareness through spectacular and symbolic pieces of art, and his freshly launched Space Waste Lab might be his most impressive installation yet.

A team of researchers has come up with plasma beam that can push space debris out of orbit. Mounted on a satellite, the two-way facing beam is produced by a bespoke ion thruster that uses its discharge to decelerate debris so it can burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.

Technology designed to clean up space has captured its first bit of simulated space debris in orbit. Part of the RemoveDEBRIS mission, a balloon acted as a target for the RemoveDEBRIS satellite, which fired a weighted net from a range of seven meters (23 ft)​ and successfully snared the "debris."​

Space may be big, really big, but Earth orbit is getting a bit crowded. NASA is set to install a new sensor on the ISS where it will spend the next two to three years monitoring space debris to learn more about its characteristics.

Stanford University and have come up with a robotic gripper that's based on the sticky pads of the gecko. The difference is that instead of helping a lizard to stick to window panes, this gripper is designed to gently latch onto dead satellites and other debris.

An ESA-funded scientist is developing a magnetic space tug to combat the growing problem of space debris. ​Using cryogenic magnets, the tugs could lock onto derelict satellites and deorbit them before they become a hazard to navigation.

ESA has provided a preview of its plan to net space debris by unveiling a prototype net gun designed to envelope and capture tumbling dead satellites. A small version of the gun targeted and took down a low-flying drone at the Industry Days event for ESA's Clean Space initiative.

For the fourth time in its history, the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) had to temporarily take shelter in their "lifeboat" as a piece of space debris passed the station today at 8:01 am EDT.