A satellite has taken the first close-up image of a piece of human-made space debris. AstroScale, a privately owned Japanese space business, captured the image of the space debris by positioning another satellite in its orbit.
The first-of-its-kind photo op in orbit is a step toward the ongoing mission to inspect and destroy potentially hazardous pieces of space junk, the ADRAS-J mission. ADRAS-J or Active Debris Removal mission was launched by AstroScale with the help of JAXA in 2009.
The European Space Agency (ESA) estimates that there are around one million particles of debris larger than a centimeter in orbit. These large debris fragments, capable of “disabling a spacecraft,” pose a serious hazard to current and future space operations. The space industry is currently looking for ways to eliminate it.
More than 9,900 tonnes of space trash clutter the Earth’s orbit. All these tiny particles of space trash floating around in orbit are a minefield for newly launched satellites and vehicles.