Swiss to Clean Up Earth's Orbit

Leave it to the Swiss to tidy up after everyone else's mess.

Oh, the Swiss. When they're not hosting international summits, winning tennis tournaments, or refusing to join political alliances, they're discovering the origins of the universe and, if all goes according to plan, launching spacecraft to clean up the thousands of pieces of debris in Earth's orbit. The Swiss Space Centre has announced plans to send what is essentially a giant orbiting vaccuum cleaner to take care of the estimated 16,000 pieces of space junk larger than 10 centimetres across. These pieces of debris can smack into satellites and other spacecraft, causing untold damage, while other defunct satellites have had the habit of dropping back to Earth in fiery balls of near-death. Hence, the need to clean up our orbit a little bit. We turn to the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, where the space centre is located, for an explanation as to how all this works:

After its launch, the cleanup satellite will have to adjust its trajectory in order to match its target’s orbital plane. To do this, it could use a new kind of ultra-compact motor designed for space applications that is being developed in EPFL laboratories. When it gets within range of its target, which will be traveling at 28,000 km/h at an altitude of 630-750 km, CleanSpace One will grab and stabilize it – a mission that’s extremely dicey at these high speeds, particularly if the satellite is rotating. To accomplish the task, scientists are planning to develop a gripping mechanism inspired from a plant or animal example. Finally, once it’s coupled with the satellite, CleanSpace One will “de-orbit” the unwanted satellite by heading back into the Earth’s atmosphere, where the two satellites will burn upon re-entry.

And if you'd rather see how CleanSpace One works in a video, well, those lofty Swiss minds have you covered: