A spacecraft hunting unwanted space

Astroscale is the Gizmodo 2025 Science Gallery winner to develop a satellite designed to encourage unwanted, with the aim of capturing and directing it towards a fire grave in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Question

Can the space industry develop new technologies that help address the increased debris problem and create a more sustainable orbital environment?

Results

On February 18, 2024, Astroscale Adras-J (removal of active debris by Astroscale-Japan) was launched on the Rocket Lab’s Electron Rocket. The goal of the task was to show its ability to deal, monitor and describe the collapsed spacecraft.

The task goal was the upper stage of the H-2A missiles in Japan. These pieces of space garbage in orbit were nearly 15 years ago, with a length of about 36 feet (11 meters) and weighing 6613 lbs (3 tons). “Early of the program, we had a complete list of candidates,” said Hesashi Inoi, the chief engineer of Astroscale Japan, for Gizmodo. “We have chosen the goal that was not far, and we also had some terrestrial notes and information about the goal and how to behave.”

About three months after its launch, the Adras-J mission came about 50 feet (15 meters) from the collapsed missile stage. With its unprecedented close approach, Astroscale became the first company to approach a large debris. Innoi explained that the wreckage was a difficult achievement, as the debris flies in space at a speed of 4 miles per second (7 km per second), or faster than the bullet speed.

Unlike other Rendzvous tasks, the company was unable to communicate with the collapsed missile part. “This is not desirable, he does not tell us where he is or how he is moving,” he said. “This makes her more complicated than just talking to a cooperative agent.”

Since his goal is not equipped with GPS, ADRAS-J Spacecraft was to rely on Limited Earth notes to locate the second stage he spent and retreat. Despite the challenges, the satellite was successful in crawling on its goal and a flight to take pictures and upper stage data.

Adras-J has been a demonstration task, which paves the way for the follow-up that will try to remove real debris. For the second mission of Astroscale, the satellite will try to match the stalled rate of stray missiles, comply with themselves, and anchor with it. Once it is drawn, the satellite will take over the missile with an automatic arm and reduce its orbit using its cannons before being fired on a path towards the Earth’s atmosphere. The car that was turned off in the Earth’s atmosphere will appear, which puts an end to the orbit task.

Why did they do that

Millionaires of space debris are currently flying in the Earth’s orbit, with approximately 1.2 million of them more than 0.4 inches (1 cm), according to another a report By the European Space Agency. This is great enough to cause catastrophic damage to another spacecraft if it collides with it.

“If you are thinking about making ground cars, there are all these different services that are performed after the car is used by the first person. It is re -use, renewed or recycling, and you go to the use used,” Einoy said. “But in space, it is used (a spacecraft) once and threw it away, but this is not good for sustainability.”

Astroscale founded in 2013, focusing on removing orbital debris and satellite service inside orbit. The Tokyo -based company aims to reduce the increasing amount of unwanted space, not only by removing alternative spacecraft physically but also by extending satellite life in space.

“By combining all these things, I do not think that, as Astroscale itself, we can change the sustainability of the world, but we hope that this will lead to the start of some of the tasks of the type of services, and customers will support this way of thinking.” “We hope in the future, and this will relate to the sustainable use of the space.”

Why are they a winner?

As space startups focus on launching more satellites, spacecraft, and rockets to orbit for the commercial use of space, Astroscale is one of the few companies that promote a sustainable practice that allows others to coexist in the tropical environment.

The company not only aims to remove orbital debris but also to enable satellite examination, deportation, fuel, and other lifelong extension services. Astroscale is the pioneer in the sustainable use of the Earth’s orbit in the hope that other companies will follow and that governments around the world specify the requirements for using space.

What next

The next satellite was launched from Astroscale at some point in 2027, with all the data and lessons learned from Adras-J and applied to the follow-up task.

AdRAS-J2 is designed to remove the Japanese orbit missile with the artscale technology in Artscale Robotic Arm to capture and reduce its orbit. “We are currently in the design phase,” said Anoui. “In the end, we will start getting more devices in the laboratory and starting to test them, then we start building the spacecraft next year.”

team

Among the main members of the Astroscale Nobu Okada team, founder and CEO; Chris Blaudbi, chief operational official; Mike Lindsai, Chief Technology Official; Nobasho Matsuama, Financial Director; Melissa, mission and mission engineer; Ariel Cohen, Aviation software engineer; Jin Fuji, Chief Engineer.

Click here To see all the winners at the Gizmodo Science Exhibition 2025.