Did the CleanSpace one spacecraft actually launch in 2018?
Space Junk Cleanup Satellite Launching on Swiss Space Plane in 2018. “In 2018, [CleanSpace One] this will be one of our first launches, if not the first one,” Grégoire Lorétan, head of S3 communications, told SPACE.com in an email.
What is ClearSpace-1 and when is it supposed to launch?
The mission, dubbed ClearSpace-1, will use an experimental, four-armed robot to capture a Vega Secondary Payload Adapter (Vespa) left behind by ESA’s Vega launcher in 2013. …
Which country is launching space vehicles to clean up space junk?
Kazakhstan
A demonstration mission to test an idea to clean up space debris launched Monday morning local time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Known as ELSA-d, the mission will exhibit technology that could help capture space junk, the millions of pieces of orbital debris that float above Earth.
What are they going to do about the bit of junk called Vespa?
The target for ClearSpace-1 is a piece of junk called Vespa, which was left in an orbit around 800km above the Earth by ESA’s Vega launcher in 2013. A future ambition is to create a clear-up robot that could eject junk into the atmosphere, before continuing to capture and de-orbit other pieces of junk.
What has left tons of space junk?
What many people don’t know is that trash has become a problem in outer space too. Years of space exploration have left tons of “space junk” in orbit around the planet.
How does remove debris work?
The RemoveDEBRIS platform will have a dragsail payload (produced by Surrey Space Centre). The function of the dragsail is to, when deployed, allow the satellite to de-orbit quicker, and to burn up faster in the Earth’s atmosphere much quicker than if the dragsail were not deployed.
What is Elsa D?
The ELSA-d (End-of-Life Service by Astroscale – demonstration) program is a spacecraft retrieval service for satellite operators. The ELSA-d is the first project and its mission is to demonstrate the core technologies to be used for the ELSA program. ELSA-d is comprised of Chaser and Target.