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COLORADO SPRINGS: With the thousands of telecommunication mini-satellites orbiting the Earth in the near future, the risk of collision with space debris will increase. For Nobu Okada, it's an opportunity.
The 46-year-old Japanese entrepreneur founded the young Astroscale company in Singapore in 2013 with the sole purpose of launching "space sweepers". The company – based in Tokyo – has more than 170 employees.
A demonstration will take place in 2020 when an Astroscale satellite will capture one of the company's mini-satellites and will attempt to take it out of its orbit, in order to propel it into the atmosphere to burn it. .
Europeans and Americans develop similar concepts, but the idea of storing everything in space remains experimental.
AFP met Nobu Okada at the 35th Space Symposium, a major meeting of the space industry in the US state of Colorado.
IS THERE A MARKET TO REDUCE SPACE DEBRIS?
"One guy said to me, Nobu, that there was no market, no one was paying to remove the space debris. And when I heard that it was There was no market, I thought it was (a) good news.If there is no market.
"The density of space debris has reached the critical level where chain collisions can occur at any time in the near future, so if we take no action, the space is no longer sustainable."
"So, someone has to clean the space."
WHO WILL PAY?
"The future debris will come mainly from the constellations, a certain percentage of the satellites will disappear in space, and they will have to be replenished with new satellites to maintain the coverage by removing the older satellites for their own sake. ensure their orbital plane is clean.
"The other area of activity is that we also need to clean up the debris that is already there, and most of it is littered with waste, and we need to prioritize the debris that is the most critical and must be removed with high priority, with the government the money, as the upper floors of the rocket ".
"Two years ago, they listened, but now they are starting to take responsibility."
ALL CLIENTS YET? WHAT COSTS YOUR SERVICES?
"We have several projects with potential clients.
"Before creating this company, people did not know how much it would cost to remove a debris because there was no proven technology." People thought $ 100, $ 300, or $ 500 million to remove an object But our price – it depends on the situation of the objects in the space – but it is much, much less than that. "
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