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A British satellite has successfully deployed a network in orbit to demonstrate how to capture space debris.
The event took place more than 300 km above the Earth.
This was part of a series of tests that will present different technologies to remove the redundant material that now surrounds the Earth.
Some 7,500 tonnes would drift aimlessly, posing a risk of collision for operational missions.
The aptly named RemoveDebris satellite took a video of his experience on the Internet.
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NASA / NANORACKS
The RemoveDebris is a demo satellite launched from the space station in June
The short footage shows a small, shoe-box-sized object that rises about 6 to 8 meters in front of the University of Surrey spacecraft.
Suddenly, a brilliant canvas, taken from the satellite, appears. It extends outward and chokes the box.
"It worked as we hoped," said Professor Guglielmo Aglietti, director of the Surrey Space Center.
"The target was spinning as if we were expecting an unwanted piece to behave, but you can clearly see that the net is capturing it, and we are very happy with the way the experiment was conducted."
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AIRBUS
The net as it was stored in its shooting mechanism
If it was a real capture, the network would be attached to the deployment satellite, which would then drive out of the sky.
As this was only a demonstration, the network and the box (which was actually removed from RemoveDebris as a target) will be allowed to fall on Earth by themselves. Their low altitude means that it should only take a few months before they burn in the atmosphere.
Much has been said about the need to clean the space, but the Surrey satellite is the first to try out practical solutions.
Quickly, RemoveDebris will test a new camera system to spot unwanted files, again, on a target it has brought to the experiment.
Later, perhaps at the beginning of the new year, there will be a demonstration of a harpoon that will trap garbage. And finally, RemoveDebris will deploy a large membrane – what is called a "trail veil", which will graze the upper atmosphere and plunge the entire mission into a destructive dive to the planet.
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SSC
Artwork: How Network Experience Was Considered Before Deployment
There are now millions of pieces of metal and other materials thrown into orbit – old rocket segments with tools accidentally dropped by astronauts, even paint stains.
The fear is that if we do not quickly take this litter out of the sky, it will become a significant threat to active satellites.
Alastair Wayman is an engineer from aeronautical giant Airbus, who is also involved in the RemoveDebris project.
"If there are any collisions, as there were before, they will create a lot of space debris, which will collide with more spaceships and you will have more space debris."
The issue of space waste is particularly pressing as a number of companies are preparing for the launch of thousands of new satellites.
There are already calls for a new, rigorous approach to licensing these spacecraft, which would require operators to be able to quickly reduce their failed equipment to orbit.
The miniature harpoon to be tested during the mission
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