Speaker
Description
Since the beginning of the space era, the amount of debris generated in low Earth orbit (LEO) has been increasing. ESA statistics show there are an estimated 130 million objects classed as lethal non-trackable debris and more than 2,600 non-functioning satellites. Analysis has shown that stabilising the space debris population can only be achieved by maintaining high PMD (Post Mission Disposal) rates on future satellites, plus removing a set number of defunct satellites per year from orbit, termed Active Debris Removal (ADR). The presentation will focus on several of Astroscale's recent missions: ELSA-d, ELSA-M, ADRAS-J and COSMIC (UK ADR).
Astroscale has been progressing on it's ELSA-M mission with ESA and Eutelsat OneWeb for 6 years which will perform a multi-client removal for constellation satellites prepared with docking plates. In 2022 the United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA) committed to continue funding towards a mission to remove two defunct pieces of UK-owned debris with a multi-client removal servicer. Astroscale’s mission “COSMIC” is designed for uncooperative, unprepared satellite removal. A variant of Astroscale’s ELSA-M mission, COSMIC replaces ELSA-M’s magnetic capture system with a robotic arm used to grapple the launch adapter ring on the client. This presentation will review the status of COSMIC on its pathway towards CDR.
Finally, the ADRAS-J(1) mission has achieved incredible inspection in space for the first time for a large LEO asset undertaking a number of flybys of an H2A rocket body. The next stage of this is the removal of the asset by ADR in the mission called ADRAS-J(2). These missions will be discussed further in the presentation.
