Speaker
Description
The number of human-made objects in Earth orbit has been increasing exponentially year-over-year. According to the latest ESA Environment Statistics (January 2026), nearly 14000 satellites are currently operational in space, while the small-size debris population is estimated to exceed 140 million space debris objects in the 1mm to 1cm size range. This rapidly growing environment poses a significant threat to both current and future space missions. The emergence of megaconstellations, with projected deployments aiming to reach up to 1.3M satellite launches in the coming decades, together with the increasing democratization of space, introduces critical challenges related to collision risk, end-of-life disposal, light pollution, and radio-frequency interference.
Access to space must therefore be kept while addressing these challenges. In this abstract we present SpaceKeepers-1, a mission developed as part of the CleanCube initiative, focused on five key technical zero-debris challenges: reliable end-of-life disposal, reliable passivation, system resilience, collision risk reduction and visual and radio astronomy impact mitigation.
Developed by Alén Space and GMV, and aimed to launch in 2028, the platform is a CubeSat-based concept, using an elongated form factor in favor of the zero-debris goals. By using attitude change maneuvers efficiently, propellant use can be minimized. A nominal attitude where low-area surfaces face velocity can minimize drag, and therefore reduce the number of station-keeping maneuvers. Orienting high-area satellite faces along the orbital velocity vector can facilitate collision-avoidance maneuvers, and accelerate end-of-life disposal, therefore reducing the propellant consumption.
To contribute to the system resilience goals, the mission will onboard an autonomous locator beacon that will enable early detection and positioning of the satellite, maintaining these capabilities through disposal. This will ensure unambiguous identification, and further improve collision avoidance capabilities. Satellite health will be continuously monitored to enhance system resilience, and advanced autonomous anomaly detection capabilities will be implemented from ground, to support early identification of potential anomalies.
Additionally, the development of advanced brightness models, analyzing apparent visual magnitude throughout the whole orbit, will improve the characterization of high brightness intervals. The use of efficient maneuvers, changing the satellite attitude, will prevent exceeding the brightness magnitude predefined limit at any orbital point. The obtained data will be used in conjunction with astronomical institutions, to improve the current models.
These experiments will demonstrate that small satellite missions can actively contribute to the development of advanced zero debris policies, establishing a framework for the future use of space in Europe and paving the way toward a safe, sustainable and efficient use of space.