Talking rubbish: anti-space debris discussion set for May

Taking place on 23-27 May, the Days will be a one-of-a-kind opportunity to discuss technological breakthroughs in the mitigation and remediation of orbital debris.

More than 17 000 items of debris bigger than 10 cm are currently being tracked from Earth – at orbital velocities, each and every one could potentially do great damage to active satellites.

ESA, along with the rest of the spacefaring world, considers finding ways to cut the production of debris in future and reduce the level of existing debris to be a urgent challenge.

ESA’s Clean Space initiative is in the process of developing technologies and techniques to avoid debris left in orbit once a given satellite’s mission is complete – known as CleanSat.

CleanSat aims to support Europe’s space industry in meeting internationally-agreed debris mitigation regulations that are now entering force, through the coordinated development and implementation of innovative systems for future low-Earth orbit satellite platforms, with ESA, system integrators and equipment suppliers working together.

In addition, Clean Space is designing a mission called e.Deorbit to remove a single large ESA-owned item of debris from the heavily-trafficked low-Earth orbit region, to demonstrate active debris removal is feasible on an ongoing basis. 

More than ten technology development studies have already been performed to support the e.Deorbit mission, currently in its B1 detailed design phase for a 2021-2023 timeframe.

These Clean Space industrial days will be the key event to gather together all of the European companies and organisations working on debris mitigation compliance or technologies in support of e.Deorbit – as well as debris remediation in future.

The industrial days will give the space community the chance to have their say when it comes to anti-debris technologies in general.

For registrations click here.