Space travel
Clean-up in space
What can be done about space debris?
Space travel
What can be done about space debris?
28. January 2020
Thousands of pieces of debris, retired satellites or parts of rocket stages are orbiting the Earth today – a growing threat to current and future missions in space. The European Space Agency (ESA) now wants to restore order over our heads and has entrusted a Swiss company with the first clean-up operation in orbit.
To prevent costly collisions, all larger particles of scrap with dimensions of ten centimetres are tracked by the observatories of the NASA and ESA space agencies or China’s CNAS. At the beginning of this year, the first German radar system for waste monitoring, which will also be able to track small objects, is scheduled to start operating close to Koblenz.
If a collision course with the International Space Station (ISS) or a satellite is detected, it will then be possible to initiate a costly evasive manoeuvre in good time. Several times a year, ESA satellites and the ISS have to carry out manoeuvres to evade these fast-flying pieces of junk. Since the ISS has to return to a slightly higher orbit on a regular basis in any case, this does not use any additional fuel.
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