Astroscale satellite successfully removes space debris in first demo

Unveiled back in March, Astroscale developed a magnetic satellite capable of removing debris orbiting our planet. This week it has successfully completed its first outer space demo.

This week, scientists hit a major milestone in the aim of removing space junk from our atmosphere.

Back in March, we covered a story on Japanese-UK space solutions company Astroscale and its vision to create a magnetic satellite capable of removing decommissioned hardware cluttering Earth’s orbit lanes.

Despite being launched into Zero-G from Kazakhstan months ago, the ELSA-d and its client spacecraft – designed to test the docking magnet’s effectiveness at grabbing and releasing space debris – had been dormant up until a breakthrough moment on Wednesday (August 28^th).

Just as engineers at Astroscale had hoped, the 400lb device was able to successfully capture and release a mock piece of debris autonomously in outer space.

🔽 Learn more about this milestone and what you can expect from the remainder of our groundbreaking mission!https://t.co/jm1VGh9H3L

— Astroscale (@astroscale_HQ) August 25, 2021

‘This test demonstration served as a successful validation of ELSA-d’s ability to dock with a client, such as a defunct satellite,’ the company explained.

Now that the training wheels are fully off, three more ‘capture-and-release’ trials must be ticked off before any potential full-scale commission.

The first will see the docking magnet attempt to grab the client from a further distance, and the second will repeat the process but with the client simulating an erratic tumbling state – rolling over itself on its vertical axis, think of ‘topspin’ on a tennis ball.

If the experiments play out as expected, a final demonstration will see the satellite inspect the client from a close distance, move away, and then approach again for re-capture. This will validate claims that all AI navigation systems are good to go in the wild.