Space claws could clean up space debris by 2025

In what I can confidently promise will be the heaviest metallic phrase you’ll read this morning, the European Space Agency is launching a plan to seize space junk with metal claws in orbit to tidy up the sky. The claw then throws itself and its cargo trapped in the earth’s atmosphere, where it burns on re-entry.

I’ll wait until the guitar riffs die down a bit.

Either way, these sacrificial burning space claws are in their early stages of development. ESA recently signed an agreement with ClearSpace, the company that builds the brands, according to CNET:

The plan was originally conceived in 2019, but now ESA officially signs a contract with a Swiss startup Free space to build and launch its very first debris clearance mission, called ClearSpace-1.

The claw’s first target is a VESPA (Vega Secondary Payload Adapter) which has been orbiting the Earth since it helped launch an ESA Vega rocket in 2013. The VESPA weighs 112 kg and, according to the ESA, is close to the size of a small satellite.

ClearSpace has some pretty cool animation of the Space Claw in action. It seems the plan is to send multiple claws – a swarm of space claws, if you will – in one launch. Watching the claw in action reminds me of a white blood cell destroying a germ:

He wakes up when the sun hits him, immediately grabs a piece of tech, and is destined to burn in a fiery descent. I think we can all relate to the Space Claw a bit here.

ESA is committing € 86 million to the project, which is slated to launch in 2025 under the name ClearSpace-1. The space junk is a difficult problem, as the THIS Remarks. In 60 years of space exploration, some 5,500 launches have resulted in more than 23,000 traceable debris. There are at least 900,000 objects orbiting our planet that are too small to track but can still cause incredible damage to satellites, spacecraft, or even “space professionals” (like the US space force calls them) engaging in extravehicular activity.

And space exploration is only heating up. Humans perform an average of 100 launches a year with ruptures – objects that go into orbit but are not whole – occurring four or five times a year. Just like here on Earth, keeping things clean in space is essential to our existence there.