back to article Your hardware is end-of-life... and it's in space. Worry not, Anglo-Japanese sat to test new orbital cleanup method

Astroboffins are gearing up to test a method to remove future space junk from Earth's orbit with the launch of ELSA-d, an experimental spacecraft that uses magnetism to snare debris. ELSA-d, which stands for End-of-Life Services demonstration, hitched a ride to space on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Right On Commander!

    This is why the docking computer is worth the credits

    1. TRT Silver badge

      Re: Right On Commander!

      And a cargo scoop

    2. Spherical Cow Silver badge

      Re: Right On Commander!

      fyi there's an Android version called Alite (not a typo).

  2. Neil Barnes Silver badge

    kitted out with a large ferromagnetic plate

    My first thought on this was - shame about all that titanium and aluminium alloy up there - how many satellites are fitted (or will be fitted) with the necessary chunks of ferrous metals - aka largely pointless mass?

    Can't help thinking that if you can navigate closely enough to do a magnetic capture - per the rather fine video - you might do better with a grapple or a sticky net or something. This kinda looks like a solution that doesn't have a problem; that is, the problem is real but it's not in a state that this solution solves... and it's not clear that without legislation everything else launched will have the necessary ferrous chunks attached.

    Is this thing intended only to catch complete satellites? In which case, I think Cubby Broccoli's fine documentary 'Moonraker' demonstrates prior art.

    1. TheProf

      Re: kitted out with a large ferromagnetic plate

      I was a little worried about the magnetic bit too but I wonder if a linear electric motor could be used to deorbit aluminium junk?

      Or how about they just launch a massive rotating lump of Blu Tack in a retrograde orbit?

    2. KittenHuffer Silver badge

      Re: kitted out with a large ferromagnetic plate

      The reason for the magnetic docking is so that it can be released in a 'burn-up' orbit, and the clean-up satellite can move on to the next target.

      If you use a net or sticky capture then you can't release it cleanly and your clean-up mission becomes a one time deal.

      1. John Robson Silver badge

        Re: kitted out with a large ferromagnetic plate

        Depends how many lightweight nets you take - you're going to be severely limited by deltaV in terms of how many things you can deorbit anyway, probably a completely preplanned set of objects, so carrying n+1 nets isn't a bad policy.

    3. Anonymous Coward Silver badge
      Boffin

      Re: kitted out with a large ferromagnetic plate

      I'm hoping (not expecting, but hoping) that this is more of a demonstration of manoeuvrability and approach etc, rather than the actual attachment mechanism.

      A camera-shutter type mechanism to attach to an exhaust nozzle would be my choice, but for a proof-of-concept an electromagnet is fine.

    4. TRT Silver badge

      Re: kitted out with a large ferromagnetic plate

      Cubby Broccoli? Gerry Anderson!

    5. Peter Gathercole Silver badge

      Re: kitted out with a large ferromagnetic plate

      Gerry Anderson also 'documented' this in an episode of UFO called "Conflict". SHADO was concerned about space junk in orbit providing cover for UFOs, and by the end of the episode, had a program to clear the larger items. Synopsis from fandom says:

      "ED Straker is convinced that space debris, discarded rocket boosters and other junk, is both a danger and a cover for alien activity. But even after the deaths of two SHADO astronauts, he is unable to convince General Henderson of the International Astrophysical Commission to resolve the problem. By the time Straker takes Henderson to SHADO HQ to prove his point, it may be too late, they will only be able to clear away the debris if they can survive the attack of the UFO that is homing in on them from behind it!"

      1. TRT Silver badge

        Re: kitted out with a large ferromagnetic plate

        Although the IAC way of removing space junk is by attaching a limpet mine and blowing the problem up a few trillion times...

        It always tickles me that episode when they use an MP3 detector to spot the alien de-orbit drone.

    6. ian 22

      Re: kitted out with a large ferromagnetic plate

      If the trash consists of aluminium, couldn’t we take advantage of aluminium's diamagnetic property and repel it into desired destruction? All that would be required is an alternating magnetic field.

    7. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: kitted out with a large ferromagnetic plate

      ferrous mass is more than just pointless, it can cause very real problems in orbit thanks to interaction with the earth's magnetic field at high speeds (think "braking effects")

      For small/brokenup stuff a ground-based laser broom is likely to be far more effective than this and for larger stuff an ion tug likely fills the same niche

      In any case the REAL impediment to de-orbiting garbage is political, not technical:

      If you demonstrate the ability to bring down a dead/uncooperating package of your own, you also just demonstrated the ablity to bring down other people's active spy/comms sats - and whilst kinetic shootdowns come with a built-in dissuader against actually using them, being able to down a bird WITHOUT creating a debris hazard trail may encourage indiscriminate activities (aka, space warfare)

  3. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
    Alert

    Satellite Capture

    First demonstrated over 50 years ago. IIRC, there was some Anglo-Japanese collaboration then.

    https://youtu.be/_qixtjMoMUA?t=67

    In terms of actual technology, the landing is very much like what SpaceX do routinely these days

    1. Neil Barnes Silver badge

      Re: Satellite Capture

      Memory bitrot... I was sure that was Moonraker :)

      1. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
        Happy

        Re: Satellite Capture

        It was in Moonraker that 'Q' remarked Bond was "attempting re-entry"

        https://youtu.be/lTiCL83_dR4?t=138s

    2. nobody1111

      Re: Satellite Capture

      Pretty common 50+ years ago

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_(TV_series)

      1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

        Re: Satellite Capture

        "The clone is the pretty one."

  4. CrackedNoggin Bronze badge

    While NOAA said the satellite is not a threat to the space station or “other critical space assets,” it is in a sun-synchronous orbit used by other weather and Earth observation spacecraft.

    Some of those satellites are not only threatened by such debris, but also pose a threat of creating more debris. Weeden noted a report by NASA’s inspector general in January that found two NASA missions in polar orbits, QuikSCAT and Terra, not only fail to meet the 25-year threshold for deorbiting spacecraft after the end of their missions, they also pose a risk of explosion because of batteries that cannot be disconnected or propellant tanks that cannot be depressurized."

    The best thing to do - in the future - is to make a satellites last act a dive towards Earth.

    1. John Robson Silver badge

      Or at least out to a graveyard orbit... far too expensive to get a geostationary bird to get to the point of deorbiting.

      1. Alan Brown Silver badge

        All you need to do is _somehow_ make the orbit go "sufficiently elliptical" - this can be done without huge changes in overall orbital energy

        Once perigee is below about 500km, atmospheric friction will do the rest for you very quickly

        1. John Robson Silver badge

          Sufficiently elliptical - that then means that the orbit *crosses* virtually every orbit in use at extreme velocity. Transfer stages usually decay within a few months because they keep perigee as low as they can.

          It also still requires really quite significant energy:

          For a typical GTO with a semi-major axis of 24,582 km, perigee velocity is 9.88 km/s and apogee velocity is 1.64 km/s,

          For a GS orbit around earth we get about 3km/s orbital velocity, so you'd need to take 1.5km/s worth of fuel - and of course the additional fuel to get *that* fuel into LEO, GTO, and then GSO.

          Alternatively you can boost the satellite ~300km up for a genuinely small dV expenditure, getting it out of the way of one of the busiest orbits.

  5. nematoad

    Err...

    "Spacecraft can sometimes spontaneously break down..."

    Nitpicking I know, but surely it should be "Spacecraft can sometimes spontaneously break up..."

    Breaking down is when something stops working. Breaking up is when something disintegrates.

    1. John Robson Silver badge

      Re: Err...

      Even if they only break down then they are unable to actively avoid further collisions, leading to more likely break up.

      Even solar pressure can induce rotations which will eventually cause break up...

      1. Neil Barnes Silver badge

        Re: Err...

        But surely, from up, the only place to break is down?

        1. Mast1
          Coat

          Re: Err...

          Break out ? You are trying to get them to escape from the "prison" of their orbit.......

          1. TRT Silver badge

            Re: Err...

            Break dance.

          2. Spherical Cow Silver badge

            Re: Err...

            When it is first launched you have to break it in.

        2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: Err...

          No, there's a lot more up than down.

  6. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Well done

    I don't really care if this actually works (of course I'll be happy if it does), I'm just happy that there are people who are finally actively tackling the problem.

    We've been hearing about this issue for over a decade, now someone is actually trying to do something about it.

    Here's hoping it works !

    1. Peter Gathercole Silver badge

      Re: Well done

      The problem is that the deltaV necessary to match orbits is quite expensive, and then the additional effort of moving from one orbit to another means that the cost of de-orbiting some of this junk is likely to be higher than the cost of originally putting it up there in the first place!

      While space was mainly the remit of governments, it was quite obvious who should bear the cost of this. But when it comes to commercial satellites and the debris associated with them, the cost of doing the cleanup may bankrupt the original companies (if they still exist), because you can bet your bottom dollar that they only put a small amount of thought into what happened at the end of their life.

      The real problem is not the larger objects that we can track, but the smaller ones. Unfortunately, the laws of motion mean that even small objects traveling at orbital speeds can inflict a lot of damage.

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Well done

        Just do the same thing as oil and mining companies do to pay for cleanup costs.

        Everybody pays into a fund during operation from their profits and then when the rig/mine closes the company sells the operation to a subsidiary which declares bankruptcy and the government pays for the cleanup.

        Meanwhile the contents of the fund having been distributed as stimulus to the companies everytime the market price drops.

        1. TRT Silver badge

          Re: Well done

          If only spaceships were fuelled by cynicism.

  7. Lotaresco

    We're going to need...

    … a bigger vacuum cleaner. A Spaceballs sized vacuum cleaner in fact.

    1. EvilDrSmith Silver badge

      Re: We're going to need...

      Would it be quick enough to catch all the debris?

      What is the speed of a vacuum in a vacuum?

      1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

        Re: We're going to need...

        If it's a Dyson, it could use all that hot air from its inflated reputation for propulsion.

        If Dyson launched a swarm of their vacuums to clean up LEO, would we have a Dyson sphere?

  8. Zebo-the-Fat

    Fuel?

    Apart from the problem of capturing non ferrous junk, it seems to use a lot of fuel (compressed gas??) for the manouvering thrusters, when that runs out it becomes just another lump of space junk!

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Fuel?

      This uses exactly as much fuel to deorbit the payload as it would take for the payload to carry to deorbit itself (which is a significant part of the fuel needed to orbit it in the first place)

      Plus you need the fuel to orbit the capture gadget, and have it manouver and have it move itself to the deorbit level. Newton is a bitch!

      There are more energy-realistic options like attaching sails which increase drag and cause things to deorbit themselves - which the Japanese have also demonstrated.

      However if you have a space agency that needs some funding between major missions this is a good thing (tm) it is quick and cheap to build and nobody can object - not military, not-environmental, not wasteful 'science' etc

      1. Glen 1
        Holmes

        Re: Fuel?

        "exactly as much fuel"

        A good ion thruster will use much less fuel than the hydrazine (etc) used in many station keeping systems.

        Not only that, you only need to give the debris enough of a nudge to intersect the atmosphere... then let nature take its course (while our intrepid hero jets away). The shuttle did not need to carry a massive fuel tank to de-orbit.

        1. Zebo-the-Fat

          Re: Fuel?

          True, but I was looking at the video... almost continuous bursts of gas from the reaction control thrusters to position the device. Probablly fine to dock with one or two pieces of junk, but more than that??? (especially if they are tumbling in 3 axis at once)

        2. John Robson Silver badge

          Re: Fuel?

          "Not only that, you only need to give the debris enough of a nudge to intersect the atmosphere..."

          Yeah - that's still quite alot of a nudge.

          The shuttle was already in a very low orbit, the ISS requires regular reboosting.

          Any higher than LEO and the energies get really significant really fast.....

  9. TomJo

    It suddenly became very popular to take care of the safety of the orbit. I love that things like this are popular. But it also looks like we do have a problem called Kessler's Syndrome. For some reason, some deny it.

    But space tugs, which are increasingly featured in the UK aerospace news, tell us the problem is real.

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