- News

The proliferation of debris orbiting the Earth is an increasing problem for spacecraft, and it can generate huge costs. To combat this threat, the Swiss Space Center at EPFL has announced the launch of CleanSpace One, a project to develop and build the first installment of a family of satellites specially designed to clean up space debris.

(Image credit: Pascale Coderay, EPFL)

There are all kinds of debris orbiting the Earth; a growing crowd of abandoned satellites, spent rocket stages, bits of broken spacecraft, and fragments from collisions are rocketing around the planet at breathtaking speeds, even flecks of paint that have lifted off once shiny space vehicles and floated off into the distance. NASA keeps close tabs on at least 16,000 of these objects that are larger than 10 cm in diameter. Even a small fragment of debris could severely damage (or even destroy) satellites or other spacecraft that collide with them, creating even more dangerous debris.

The design and construction of CleanSpace One, as well as its maiden space voyage, will cost about 10 million Swiss francs. Depending on the funding and industrial partners, this first orbital rendez-vous could take place within three to five years.

Linked teaching resources in the National STEM Centre eLibrary:

Issue 39: It's in the News! Space Junk
This activity from the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) Primary magazine takes the issue of space junk as its central theme. There are opportunities to develop and understanding of time and time zones, probability, mass, speed and large numbers relating to distances. Age: 5-7 | 7-9 | 9-11

Pupil Research Briefs – Astro-science Briefs
This Pupil Research Brief (PRB), designed by a team at the Centre for Science Education, supports the teaching and learning of astro-science at GCSE and Scottish Standard Grade levels. This brief includes: Collision course - Assessing the risk that a massive rocks from space will crashed into Earth; experiments to estimate the damage such an impact would; consideration of plans to detect and track nearby massive objects in space to give us an early warning of danger. Age: 14-16