Japanese Spacecraft Snaps Unprecedented Photos as it Comes Dangerously Close to Space Junk
In a recent space mission that turned heads, a Japanese satellite operated by Astroscale made history by coming within just 15 meters of an abandoned rocket in Earth’s orbit.
The operation, part of the Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan (ADRAS-J) project, didn’t go exactly as planned, but it marked a significant milestone.
Astroscale shared their excitement about the mission online, stating that this was the closest approach by a commercial entity to space debris to date.
The target was a hefty three-ton upper stage of a H2A rocket from the Japanese Space Exploration Agency (JAXA), which had been orbiting Earth since it launched the GOSAT satellite back in 2009.
The ADRAS-J mission’s main goal is to clean up space by removing large debris like this defunct rocket part.
During the mission on November 30, the spacecraft executed a precise approach from 50 meters behind the rocket.
Although the mission was to move even closer and prepare for a future capture, an unexpected issue caused the onboard collision avoidance system to abort the approach prematurely.
Astroscale Japan reported that the spacecraft autonomously moved away safely after detecting a relative attitude anomaly with the rocket stage. They are now investigating the cause of this interruption.
The next step in this initiative, the ADRAS-J2 mission, involves a follow-up mission with a whopping budget of $82 million.
Slated for a 2028 launch, this mission will employ a robotic arm to drag the rocket stage to a lower orbit, where it will mostly disintegrate upon re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.
Such missions are crucial as low Earth orbit becomes increasingly cluttered with space debris, which NASA describes as a ‘space junk yard.’
With millions of pieces, including defunct satellites and even flecks of paint, whizzing around at tremendous speeds, the cleanup of these remnants is more important than ever for the safety and sustainability of future space missions.