debris

The ESA has assembled a mission design to remove derelict satellites from orbit and now requires approval from European Ministers by the end of 2016.

Named e.Deorbit, the project is part of ESA’s Clean Space initiative, which aims to the reduce environmental impact of the space industry in terrestrial and orbital regions.

e.Deorbit has so far completed Phase-A preliminary analysis, as well as finalising various aspects. It is now ready to move on to Phase-B1.

ESA programme manager Robin Biesbroek said: "In this phase we will really go into detail on the concept of operations, e.Deorbit’s subsystems design, and especially the capture and deorbit phases.

"Extensive simulations will be done not only for standard cases, but also for off-nominal cases."

The ESA intends to launch e.Deorbit in 2021. The system will capture debris before safely burning-up itself and the satellite during a controlled atmospheric re-entry.

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The agency said in a statement that: "Having proved this approach, multiple missions per year could be flown and e.Deorbit is being designed with recurring flights in mind."

"The system will capture debris before safely burning-up itself and the satellite during a controlled atmospheric re-entry."

The project team has ruled out the proposed plan to harpoon a target based on available alternative capture options such as robotic arms or nets.

Downward deorbiting of debris is being preferred over the initial plan to move it into higher orbits.

The ESA’s concurrent design facility has identified various aspects of the mission, including use of a Vega rocket upper stage as a platform for the capture system.

The programme will now work on technical specifications with a primary goal of minimising the risk to people on the ground to less than one in 10,000.

e.Deorbit is planned to complete its systems requirements review by June 2016.

Image: Distribution of debris around Earth. Photo: courtesy of ESA.