ESA wants to carry out first mission to clean up space debris in 2025

The ESA plans to conduct its first mission to clean up space debris in 2025. The European Space Agency has commissioned the Swiss start-up ClearSpace to do this. The ClearSpace-1 mission is to retrieve a 100kg object from space.

ClearSpace-1 grabs Vespa

ClearSpace has been chosen by the ESA to submit a final proposal. The project is due to start in March. If all goes according to plan, the ClearSpace-1 mission will take place in 2025. The goal is to pluck the Vega Secondary Payload Adapter from space. That is an object of about 100 kg, which has been in orbit around the earth since 2013 at an altitude of 660 to 800 km. The Vespa was needed to launch an ESA satellite into space.

It was decided to clear the Vespa, because this is a relatively simple object, with a simple shape and a sturdy construction. After that, the goal is to pick up larger objects and eventually there must be missions where several objects are cleared at once.

ClearSpace’s plan is to use a cube-shaped satellite with extendable gripping arms to pick up space debris and remove it from orbit. The space debris thus ends up in the atmosphere, where it burns. The goal of the mission is to start up a market for performing space maintenance and disposal of space debris.

According to Luc Pidguet, founder of ClearSpace, there are currently about 2,000 active satellites and another 3,000 that are no longer working. That number will increase significantly in the coming years, in particular due to the arrival of various constellations consisting of hundreds or thousands of nanosatellites. This not only creates a chance of space debris, but can also disrupt observations. Astronomers complained about this last month.

ClearSpace is a spin-off that originated from the Technical University of Lausanne. The start-up initially used the name CleanSpace.